The Jews, God and the devil

If Christians don't support the Old Testament and its people, what else don't they believe?

For the last seven years, megachurch pastor Andy Stanley, whose main campus is very close to my home, has taken a position that Christians should “unhitch” from the Old Testament. He wrote a book on the subject, and has engaged in robust online debate. I enjoy a good theological debate as much as the next guy (you may get your kicks differently), but anyone who discards the Old Testament, and “The Jews” as its people, does so at their own peril, in the eyes of the Lord. “Unhitching” from the Old Testament is the first step to antisemitism, and that end is nearly always the result of the journey when such beliefs are taken up.

English: Galician Jews in the resort town of Truskavets, photo postcard. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

My friend Erick Erickson wrote recently about “the canary in the coal mine.” He was talking about how certain right-wing podcasters and bloggers like Joe Rogan have provided wide platforms for conspiracists and Jew-blamers. He also mentioned the intolerable Candice Owens and Turning Point USA, both with massive followings in the MAGA world. Conspiracies about “the Jews” (or as Jonah Goldberg writes in this context, “the Jooooos”) are not limited to right-wing corners of the online world.

Left-wing progressives are as anti-Israel, a very thin veneer for anti-Jew, as they have ever been. Erick wrote, when “hatred of Jews rises, soon, a lot of other bad things fester in society.” This is true without exception. “Antisemitism is one of the first indicators that society has turned unhealthy.” In popular religion, among many evangelicals, and in popular politics on both ends of the political spectrum, openly discussing Jew-blaming and anti-Jewish conspiracies is no longer a whispered, cloistered practice. It’s right out in the open.

I’m not writing about individual people who happen to be Jews. Individually, Jews are as diverse in moral bent as anyone else on earth. Theologically, we are all fallen, and subject to great sin and temptation. So, Bernie Madoff, Sam Bankman-Fried, Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk are first humans, capable of great and terrible things; they also happen to be Jews. Erick wrote how Jews were historically excluded from certain tradecrafts and encouraged to go into moneylending and entertainment, fields that were considered sinful to the church in western history. And when Jews were successful in those fields, they were persecuted for it. This is also true, but it’s not limited to just those fields.

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world population; and Jews have won 20% of all Nobel prizes, with an astonishing 41% in economics and 26% in physics. This means that Jews have a 100-fold impact on the world in fields considered to be important by Nobel standards. In economics, Jews have a 200-fold impact, which is pretty evident if you look at Hollywood and Wall Street. This is really a statistical impossibility, not just an outlier, but a singular case which in any scientific study would necessitate investigation of a cause.

Biblically, the Jews represent Israel, as a people, the “Children of Israel,” meaning the tribes headed by the sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel when he wrestled with an angel in Genesis chapter 32. Jacob was the son of Isaac, who was the inheritor of the promise of God, the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:5, “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” One of Abraham’s offspring—his older son by the handmaid Hagar—was Ishmael, the historical patriarch of the Arabs, who have largely followed Islam. Islam claims Abraham as its patriarch, so it appears God kept that covenant.

However, the inheritance of the land went to Isaac, then to Jacob, who became Israel, through his sons, and the sons of Joseph, who together became the twelve tribes of Israel. The Old Testament spends most of its volume dealing with these tribes, and their relationship with the covenant-giving God who gave them their identity. Of those people, and their land, the prophet Zechariah wrote, “For this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye— I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them.’”

Zechariah was writing about the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon to Jerusalem and the Holy Land of Israel. But that’s not all that was written about Israel: there are over 2600 references to “Israel” in the Bible. Many of these are in the New Testament.

Paul, the most prolific of New Testament writers and an Apostle of God, spent an entire chapter of Romans laying out God’s plan for Israel in the age of the Church. The key verse is Romans 11:29 “ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” God called Israel to be a light to the nations, indeed the world, and indeed they have been repeatedly used by God in that role. And the word “irrevocable” means exactly that. While the old covenant has been fulfilled (that’s the reason it is superseded, not revoked) by the coming of Messiah, the promises of God associated with that covenant are still in force, and so are the curses for those who break it.

“Unhitching” the Old Testament means throwing away Scripture, which Christians believe to be inerrant as the Word of God.

To believe that Israel has no special place in God’s order as a nation, you have to believe that God has not called the Jews back to their land, that Zionism is a human invention, and that God has no plan to gather Israel at the end times. You have to believe that Jacob’s (Israel’s) purchase of the land near Shechem, where he built an altar which he called El-Elohe-Israel (God, the God of Israel) was his own personal transaction and had no prophetic value. You have to believe that Deuteronomy 4:40 “I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time” is not really for all time.

To believe God is finished with the Jews, you have to believe that Christ was raised as a descendent of the line of David for some other reason than to fulfill the scripture in 1 Chronicles 17, a “dynasty of kings.” You have to believe that Jesus was a King for everyone except those for whom He was prophesied and promised. You have to believe that the sign Pilate had placed above Jesus’ head on the cross “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” means that Jesus was the king of a dead, discarded people. You have to believe like the Sadducees, who questioned Jesus in Luke chapter 20, where Jesus answered:

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—even Moses proved this when he wrote about the burning bush. Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, he referred to the Lord as ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead, for they are all alive to him.

Those men dared not ask Jesus any more questions. Yet some Christians who believe in Replacement Theology continue to test God with convoluted logic about Israel and politics and world opinion. Some claim that the Church is the new Israel. If that’s so, then why hasn’t the Church been called to the Holy Land and to occupy it and gather there? Why has the Church, as a whole, focused everywhere else except Israel? Of course, that’s the Great Commission, to preach the Gospel around the world. Yet God has a purpose for Jerusalem; in Zechariah 14:4,

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.

This is the same prophet who wrote in Zechariah 9, “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” If we know that Jesus fulfilled that former scripture at His first coming, He will surely fulfill the latter in His second. It’s foolish to believe that the Church will somehow develop a longing to occupy the Holy Land and take Israel’s place there. It’s foolish to believe that God will fulfill scripture and prophecy outside the context of His people Israel.

And what of Americans? We’ve enjoyed over two hundred years of incredible blessings: resources, friendships, peace, and power. Is none of this the result of our friendship with Jews and Israel?

Americans and Israelis are inextricably linked. Golda Meir was born a Russian Jew and emigrated at 8 years old to Milwaukee. She was an American for the next 42 years until Israel became a nation. She lived in the Land (called “Palestine”) for over 20 of those years, so if she was not an American, I suppose you could call her a Palestinian, which I believe would upset many in the anti-Israel camp, so we’ll stick with American. Signer of Israel’s declaration of independence Ze’ev Gold was also an American citizen.

When America and our government waver on Israel, the rest of our country does tend to suffer. You want to believe the current administration is here to save America? Fine—one thing that’s been rather steady about Trump is his support of the Jewish state, even if he has some vile anti-semites in his orbit. You want to believe its judgement on our country? That also works, in fact it’s more likely, theologically. As anti-semitism rises in America, God’s judgement comes.

The most powerful proof I have, theologically, of Israel’s prominence in God’s plan is Satan’s opposition. Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” The Jewish people have suffered opposition and persecution in every place, in every time, whether scattered, gathered, possessed of much, or dispossessed of all they have. Since 70 A.D. when the Romans scattered them, through expulsions, pogroms, eliminations, forced conversions, and the Holocaust, Jews have been the target of the most vicious attacks the world can perpetrate. To believe the Jews and Israel are not special, you have to believe that there’s some inherent trait or characteristic which makes Jews so hateable . They really have to be some of the worst people on earth to engender such virulent hatred around the world.

Or maybe they’re a very bright light that the darkness hates. John 3:19-21: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” Substitute “Israel” for “light”. And this is the condemnation, that Israel has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than Israel , because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates Israel and does not come to Israel , lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to Israel, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. Does this mean that everything Israel does is not sin? No. It means that everything Israel does and is, is done in God.

God has a will for Israel, that they may all be saved (Romans 11:26). Paul has a message for the Church, which still speaks today.

For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Supporting Israel is nothing less than standing with God in bringing forth life from the dead. Isn’t that what Israel is about? They brought forth crops out of dead desert land. They brought forth technology out of a land bereft of education or culture. Supporting Israel has little to do with the political arguments about Gaza, Hamas, hostages, and peace with the Palestinians. There will always be conflict where darkness and light collide.

The opposite is also true: opposing Israel is aligning with the plans of the devil, because Satan opposes Israel, and the Jews. It was Satan who entered into Judas to fulfill the scriptures so that Jesus would be betrayed and crucified. Modern anti-semitism, just as it was in ancient times, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, American colonial times, World War II and the Holocaust, is satanic in nature.

All Christians have a calling to support Israel because it’s God’s desire. As Americans, we have an obligation to support Israel because they represent a free society in a part of the world dominated by oppressive dictatorships. Most importantly, we must support Israel because doing so is walking in the light. We must walk in the light because we are in Christ. John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

“Unhitching” from the Old Testament leads to unhitching from Israel. Doing that brings a curse. We are seeing the effects, as the “canary in the coal mine.” We should heed that warning.