Last summer in Spain, Meggan and I spent a couple days with some new friends of ours, a family of Spanish Christians. We had been getting to know these folks for a few weeks, and we grew to love them. They showed us incredible cross-cultural hospitality! They opened their homes to us beyond what the average Spaniard would do, and I must add that the husband was immensely patient with my atrocious broken Spanish. On our second day hanging out, at one point in conversation, the wife said (as I remember and translate it), "I don't understand how any Christian could read the Bible and not be pro-Israel."
Earlier this summer, after moving back to Madison from Denver, Meggan and I went to the farmers' market around the capitol square on a Saturday morning. It's a staple of the summer in Madison, and on a beautiful morning, it's just a great place to be. In addition to the farmers' stands along the four sides of the square, each of the four corners holds a number of card tables set up by groups promoting their particular causes. One such group that Saturday was supporting Palestinian rights. Their primary informational Q&A sheet comes from an organization called Inter-denominational Advocates for Peace (IDAP). These are enthusiastic folks from at least six Christian traditions who believe in divestment from companies who profit from the harming of innocent Palestinian lives, an end to U.S. funding for the Israeli military, and an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
What's going on? How is it that different Bible-believing Christians look at this situation and come out with such diametrically-opposed viewpoints? Well, eschatology plays a big role in this conversation. Let me show you how.
A couple posts ago (on "the millennium"), I asked the following question:
--Does God have a special plan at the end of time for the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem, or the Jewish people?
Answer: It depends who you ask... so let's ask a couple different groups.
Dispensational answer (for a refresher, see post on "two types of premillennialism"): Yes, yes, and yes.
Amillennial answer (see post on "the millennium"): No, no, and no.
Not surprisingly, our Spanish friends mentioned above are dispensational (whether they are familiar with that term or not), and the U.S. denominations represented in IDAP come from amillennial traditions (Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, and more).
However, the question for a Christian of whether to support the present-day political state of Israel against the Palestinians is not just a question of dispensationalism vs. amillennialism. There are amillennials who support Israel and dispensationals who don't (and plenty of Christians for and against Israel who are unfamiliar with eschatology altogether). The Israeli/Palestinian question is wrought with historical, political, and theological complexities.
I am the wrong person to break down the historical and political issues. What forces led to the post-WWII creation of the state of Israel? What has transpired in the military conflicts since then? How have civilians been put in harm's way, and by whom? Is Israel a democracy, an apartheid state, or both? (Is that even possible as a combination? Gosh, I'm ignorant.)
On the other hand, I am a little more qualified to talk about the theological issues. In no particular order, here are some questions to consider.
Who are the people of God? In a certain manner of speaking, all people are God's children. He loves and cares for every human being. He desires that each of us would have our basic material needs met, he expects each of us to hold to basic moral standards, and he wants us all to come into a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ.
This points to another way of answering the question - God's people are those who trust in Jesus with all their being and become part of the global Christian movement (a.k.a. the Church). These people may come from any ethnic background or religious upbringing. In Israel/Palestine, they include Muslim-background followers of Jesus (a tiny group in number), messianic Jews (a larger but still very small number), and Palestinian Christians (the largest of these three groups, though still a small minority among all Palestinians).
There might be a third way of answering the question, depending on your eschatological viewpoint. Dispensational Christians would say that ethnic Jews remain the people of God. They assert, as we mentioned a couple posts ago, that God is doing two separate things in history, one with the Church and one with the Jewish people. Eternal salvation for individual Jews can still only come in Christ, but God's Old Testament promises to the Jewish people still stand. Amillennial Christians would disagree, saying that the Church has replaced Israel as the people of God since the coming of the Messiah.
Does the land of Israel belong to the people of God? The answer to this question is usually tied to the third part of the previous question. From an amillennial perspective, the Old Testament promises to the Jews about the land of Israel and the temple will find their ultimate fulfillment at the end of this age, in God's reign over all of the new heavens and new earth. The new Israel, the Church, is a kingdom that is "not of this world," yet it will spread "all through the dough." That is to say, there is no land or country that necessarily belongs to the people of God, but the people of God will continue to spread throughout every country on the planet and have a positive influence within in every land. The land of Israel/Palestine has no special significance for amillennial Christians.
Dispensational Christians would agree with much of this - the Church has no land yet is spreading to every land, and the land of Israel does not belong to the Church. On the other hand, they would say that the Old Testament promises to the Jews about the land of Israel and the temple will be literally fulfilled on this earth for ethnic Jews in the land of Israel/Palestine. This fulfillment will come in Christ's millennial kingdom on this earth at the end of the age. Because of this perspective, a great number of dispensational Christians place a high significance on the founding of the modern-day nation of Israel about 60 years ago, seeing it as a sign that the end of this age is coming soon. Many dispensational Christians desire to see the modern-day nation of Israel expand to include the widest territory in the region God ever promised to the Jews (a region much larger than either Old Testament Israel or modern-day Israel at their largest points).
How are the people of God called to live in their political lives? Entire libraries have been written on this topic over the past 2,000 years, so we'll stick to some basic points, important for our conversation, which the majority of Christians would endorse. The Bible shows a healthy skepticism of human government throughout the OT and the NT. Political states are entities that can accomplish some good in administering criminal justice, protecting the people, and caring for the poor and downtrodden... but they (and the people in them) are prone to arrogance, injustice, violence, and corruption. God's people who find themselves in positions of political influence should work for gains in effectiveness in the former categories and (naturally) declines in the latter categories.
Two specific biblical outworkings of these general principles deserve our particular focus. THESE ARE PRETTY IMPORTANT FOR WHERE WE'RE GOING, SO PAY ATTENTION. First, while God expects the pursuit of justice, peace, and the common good from all political states, he has higher expectations of his people. He believes we can live far closer to these ideals than people who do not know him (see, for example, Amos 1-2). Second, the Old Testament people of God were repeatedly instructed to show kindness and generosity to the non-Israelites living in their midst. This instruction was usually tied to remembering that their ancestors had been in that same position when they were foreigners in Egypt.
Where does the modern-day political nation-state of Israel fit into this conversation? For the amillennialist, the answer is short and sweet - there is no theological reason to favor or disfavor the nation of Israel. One should care about the political situation in the Middle East for the same reasons one cares about other political situations around the globe: for the control of human violence and the promotion of a just peace between warring factions.
For the dispensationalist, there are approximately four options worth considering:
(1) The current state of Israel is unrelated to the kingdom of Israel to be restored in the millennium; or
(2) it is in some way a precursor to that coming kingdom of Israel; or
(3) it is the same state as the one to come in the millennium, when it will be ruled by Jesus; or
(4) "I don't know if it's the same state or not."
Most dispensationalists opt for (2) or (3). The reasons to hold different positions depend on what one thinks of the nature of the state of Israel in the millennium. If one expects it to be a mix of people who are faithful to God and people who are not, much like the Israel of old, the current state of Israel (which holds Jews of every stripe, from secular to Orthodox) could fit that description. If one expects the millennial Israel to be comprised of the remnant of Jews who are faithful to God, the current state could not be the same as the one to come - it would be a precursor at most.
Here's the rub, and this is the money shot... Most Christians who unquestioningly support Israel are dispensationalists who believe it has a role to play in God's end-times drama. But if one truly believes that the current state of Israel is, in this important way, the "people of God," one should hold them to HIGHER standards of justice and peacemaking, NOT give them carte blanche. The dispensationalist should be MORE CONCERNED that Israel would show kindness and generosity to the non-Israelites in their midst, rather than supporting anything Israel might do to "claim its land" from the Palestinian inhabitants. For these reasons, regardless of one's particular theological beliefs about the role of the Jewish people or the land of Israel at the end of the age, one should never overlook or excuse any injustices perpetrated by the Israeli government. Even if you think it is God's will that the Jews should have this land, you should not be content as they violate God's ways to pursue that end.1
That's my bit, and a little longer of a post than I had expected. Apparently it takes a bit of space to address a complex issue, even though I'm only addressing it from one angle. For those who are interested in a little more reading, including more historical and political perspective than I have provided here and a list of other potential resources, this article by one of my seminary professors can serve as a launching point for further investigation. As you read you'll see that my thoughts on this matter have been influenced by Dr. Carroll's. UPDATE (Oct. 1): See Claire Rymer's comment to this post for two helpful resources. Claire has massively more knowledge about international political realities than I have.
Next post: the end and the environment.
1. As a disclaimer for those of you who might need to hear it at this point, I'm not trying to say that all Palestinians are merely innocent victims. I'm just not willing to turn a blind eye to the evidence of injustices committed on both sides.
