The recent events that have taken place in Israel and Gaza are yet another example of how broken humanity is. We have seen images and videos of children being kidnapped, festival attendees gunned down, women paraded as trophies, and countless humans killed by Hamas terrorists. As Christians, we should unequivocally condemn these acts. They are direct acts of treason against the One True God, who creates all people and gives them the Imago Dei. In considering the conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization known as Hamas we must understand that there is decades of pain and hatred. This however, is not a justification for the atrocities that the world has witnessed over the past weeks. Following these events, some of you have asked me if we have a biblical obligation as Christians to recognize Israel’s claim to the land on religious grounds. This paper hopes to provide biblical clarity and answer two questions: 1) Who are God’s chosen people and the heirs of his promises? And 2) How should we consider geopolitical events that involve the land currently belonging to the nation-state of Israel?
I recognize that many of you may interpret the following scriptures in different ways than I do, and I want to be clear that Christians can respectfully disagree on these points and still be members of the same church. I hope to offer a persuasive, but not exhaustive, presentation of who God’s people are and how we should consider Israel, but I also ask you to search the scriptures with me, as I am an imperfect man seeking to understand God just like you all!
There are several texts that explicitly discuss the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12. Ephesians 2:11-3:13, Galatians 3:15-29, and Romans 9:3-8 and 10:5-13 all speak to God’s promises and how they are fulfilled in Jesus. I believe the Bible is explicitly clear that God’s people are, and have always been, those who trust in the Messiah.
Ephesians 2:11-3:13
In this section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, he is directly speaking to Gentile Christians. He begins by reminding the Gentiles that at one time, they were separated from Christ. Not only that, they were also “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” and “strangers to the covenants of promise.” They had no hope and were completely without God. “But now,” he continues, “because of Christ Jesus,” the believing Gentiles have now been brought near! Not only to God, but to that commonwealth and the covenants of promise that were previously far away from them. Jesus has made us, both believing Gentiles and believing Jews, “one new man in place of the two.” Note that Paul doesn’t say “you Gentiles have now been brought into Judaism,” but that there is now a third people that exists above Jews and Gentiles- God’s people, the Saints (v19). We are now “fellow citizens” with the Jews who have put their faith in Jesus, and members of the same household, because we “both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (v18). Paul then continues in Ephesians 3 to tell us that this amazing revelation that believing Jews and believing Gentiles share the same inheritance has been a “mystery” (3:3-4), that has now been revealed to the apostles and the prophets by the Spirit - v6: “this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Paul is making explicitly clear that the people who now have a rightful “claim” to the promises of God are not ethnic Israelites, but those who are in Christ Jesus - God’s people the Saints.
Galatians 3:15-29
In this section of Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia, Paul makes a bold claim- in verse 16, he says that the promises of the Old Testament made by God were “made to Abraham and his offspring.” Then, he launches into a remarkable commentary in 16b: “It does not say ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ which is Christ.” Paul is saying that even from the beginning, the promises of God given to Abraham didn’t belong to all of Abraham’s offspring, but only to Jesus! In verses 17-23, Paul then goes on to explain that the law given to the Israelites did not do away with God’s promise to Abraham’s offspring Jesus, but that it served to hold Jesus’ inheritance until He arrived. But now, (v25) “because faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus [we] are all sons of God through faith.” Paul closes this section by saying that because we are all sons through faith, there is now no ethnic criteria for inheriting the promises of God. Not only that, but there is also no gender or socioeconomic criteria for inheriting the promises given to Jesus. Instead, if we are Christ’s, “then we are Abraham’s offspring,” and now have been made “heirs according to the promise,” alongside Christ Jesus. Here in Galatians 3, Paul is telling us that the criteria for inheriting the promises given to Abraham are not ethnic criteria, but only whether or not one belongs to Christ through faith.
Romans 9:3-8, 10:5-13
In this section of Paul’s letter to the saints in Rome, Paul is addressing the charge that because Israel is not all believers, that God must have somehow failed. “If God cannot be trusted to keep his promise to Israel,” you might ask, “how can I trust him to keep his promise to the Church?” Paul answers this question in verse 6, where he says “it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring…” From the very beginning, Paul is saying, not everyone who has come from Abraham’s seed is a true Israelite. As an example, Paul uses the example of Ishmael and Isaac. Both are Abraham’s sons, but only “through Isaac shall [Abraham’s] offspring be named” (v7). Paul is trying to show us that even from the beginning there has been a “true Israel” within ethnic Israel, and that the unbelief and rejection of God by ethnic Israel in no way does away with God’s promise to the “true Israel.” Verse 8 tells us that “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God,” which means being born an ethnic Israelite does not make you a true Child of God and therefore an heir to the promises God made to Abraham. Instead “the children of the promise are counted as offspring,” meaning only those descendants who trusted the promise of the coming messiah were counted as “true offspring” of Abraham. Verse 25 quotes from the prophet Hosea and shows that Gentiles would be brought into God’s family as sons when he said, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” Not only that, verse 26 tells us that we Gentiles would one day be called the “sons of the living God.” Who, then, are God’s beloved and chosen people? Who are the children who are heirs of the promises of Abraham made in the Old Testament? Those who have attained a “righteousness by faith,” (v30). There is now “no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” (10:12-13). Where there once were two people, there is now no distinction. The promises of Abraham now belong to any who would call on the name of the Lord.
I hope to have revealed the truths of scripture - that from the beginning, God’s people have always been those who trust in the promise, not just those who have Abraham’s blood flowing through them. If this is true, what do we say about any world events concerning present-day Israel?
If the promises of God may only be claimed by true “heirs,” and as we have seen, becoming an heir is not dependent on ethnicity, then we cannot say that ethnic Israelites or the nation-state of Israel has a divine right or “inheritance” of God’s promises. But we must be very careful not to draw any unbiblical conclusions from this. As a nation-state, Israel has every right to defend its borders and every human right extended to every other nation in rebellion against God- no nation should be treated unjustly, including Israel. We can and should support the righteous pursuit of justice in Israel, and we should pray for the swift defeat of Hamas and restoration of the captives to their families.
As your pastors, we do want to call you to the obligation all Christians share. To love God above all and to love our neighbors more than ourselves. Even in the darkest of times. Right now one of the most powerful ways we can do that is through prayer. Here are three prayer points for this present moment:
Pray for the salvation of ethnic Israelites- Romans 11 tells us that God has not turned his back on ethnic Israel. Though some of ethnic Israel has been “cut off” by their rebellion in sin, we are promised that some will be “grafted back in” by faith in Jesus as Messiah. We should pray that the Lord would continue to gather his people from all the Earth, and that He would use this tragedy that Satan means for evil to be for His ultimate good.
Pray for Israeli and Palestinian Christians- I am personally tempted to fear and doubt God’s goodness at this time, and I imagine our brothers and sisters in Israel and Gaza are feeling that even more so. Pray that our brothers and sisters would be strengthened in their faith and that they would be bold to share the good news of the Gospel that is rejected by both Muslims and Jews. Pray for the local churches to be a shining light in their cities and neighborhoods to a city in ruin.
Pray for the salvation of Hamas leaders- The acts we have all seen (and many more we have been spared from seeing) reveal the depths of sin that many members of Hamas have allowed to reside in their hearts. I don’t want to pray for their salvation. I want for their sin to result in their eternal damnation. But I am also reminded of the depths of my own sin. I don’t deserve salvation. I deserve eternal damnation and separation from God. But God, because of His great love that he has for us, has made us heirs according to the hope of eternal life through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. Pray that just as he opened your eyes to see your sin and repent of it, he would open the eyes of the members of Hamas and that they would repent and turn to the One True God. Finally, pray for peace and a swift end to the conflict and terrorist attacks in Gaza and Israel.
As your pastors, we hope that this letter will help you and your family to better understand God’s word and pray for the conflict in Israel. If you wish to discuss this more or have any questions, please reach out to us directly- we would be glad to get together for prayer and discussion.
Seeking His Kingdom,
Evan Anthony
Veritas Church Elder