Posted on 04/01/2026 9:44:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Right now, if you scroll long enough through conservative Christian feeds, you will see two very different tempers about Israel — two extremes; two ditches.
One says this: God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” That settles it. End of discussion. If you are a Christian, you (your country) must support the modern state of Israel in all things and give them as many resources as they want. To hesitate is to risk standing under God’s curse.
The other says this: Christ fulfilled the promises. The covenant is over. Ethnic Israel no longer carries any theological weight (they may even be a “curse” that must be “handled”). And from there, in some corners, the tone darkens into sheer, often conspiratorial resentment against Jewish people at-large (even going so far as to sanitize the likes of Hitler), convinced they are simply applying biblical covenant theology.
Both sides quote the Bible. A lot. Both sides tell a partial story. Neither tells the whole one.
So let’s tell the whole story.
It begins with one man in Ur. In the Book of Genesis 12, God calls Abram out of paganism and makes him a promise. “I will make of you a great nation … 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.” That is not random favoritism. That is the launch of redemption after the wreckage of Genesis 3 and the scattering at Babel.
From that moment on, the storyline tightens. Abraham has two sons, but God says, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” Isaac has two sons, and before they are born, God declares, “The older will serve the younger.” The line narrows to Jacob. Then to Judah. Then to David. The promise is like a thread running through generations, sometimes barely visible, often hanging by a strand.
Pharaoh takes Sarah. “The Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues.” Abimelech takes her. God warns him in a dream, “You are a dead man.” Why such severity? Because if that line collapses, the promise collapses. And if the promise collapses, the world stays under the curse (the curse of sin; Genesis 3).
Centuries later, Israel is enslaved in Egypt. God tells Moses, “I have remembered my covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” The plagues fall again. The sea parts. A nation is born. The covenant promise is still moving forward, just as God intended.
But Israel is never portrayed as morally flawless. They grumble in the wilderness. They worship golden calves. They demand a king. They split into two kingdoms. They fall into idolatry (a lot). Prophets warn them. They kill their own prophets. God judges them in their rebellion (a lot). Assyria comes. Babylon comes. Exile comes. If you read the Old Testament honestly, you see two things at once. Israel is chosen. Israel is stubborn. And yet the promise keeps advancing.
Then a Jewish child is born in Bethlehem. Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy that runs straight back to Abraham and David, keeping our eyes on the big picture. Paul later explains what that means in Galatians 3:16: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring … who is Christ.” The thread finally reaches its destination. The offspring is not merely a nation. It is a person.
Now the promise explodes outward. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The crucified and risen Messiah sends His apostles to the nations. Gentiles are grafted in. Sinners from every tribe and tongue are justified by faith.
But that raises a painful question: “If the Messiah has come, why have so many Jews rejected Him? Has God abandoned His ancient people?”
In Romans 9–11, Paul answers with tears. “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” for his “kinsmen according to the flesh” (Jews). He does not sneer. He grieves for them, even saying he’d forego his own salvation if it meant theirs. He lists their privileges, honoring what Matthew stated his gospel with: “The adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.” Then he says something that reframes everything: “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” Ethnicity alone was never the guarantee. God’s promise has always moved through electing grace.
Still, Paul refuses the idea that God is finished with ethnic Israel. “Has God rejected his people? By no means.” There is a remnant chosen by grace. There is also “a partial hardening.” Not total. Not permanent. He warns Gentile believers, “Do not be arrogant toward the branches (ethnic Jews) … do not become proud, but fear.” And then this stunning line: “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” He even looks ahead and says, “And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
That is the full story. A covenant that begins with Abraham, narrows through Israel, culminates in Christ, and still carries a future mercy for ethnic Jews.
Now bring that story into today.
The first ditch takes Genesis 12 and flattens it into a foreign policy command. It treats “I will bless those who bless you” as if it were written about a 21st century parliamentary system. But in its original setting, that promise guarded the messianic line. It ensured that the offspring would come. It pointed forward to Christ. To turn it into an automatic endorsement of every decision made by the modern Israeli government is to rip it out of redemptive history and drop it into cable news.
You can support Israel’s right to exist (let’s call this Zionism). You can believe a Jewish state has a legitimate claim to security and sovereignty (as I do, proudly). You can oppose terrorism and antisemitism with moral clarity (as any Christian should). You can even describe yourself politically as a Zionist in that sense (again, as I do). But you do not need to pretend that every policy, every military action, every political coalition is beyond critique. Loving a nation does not mean baptizing its every decision. Christians and Americans already know how to do this with their own countries.
The second ditch is more corrosive. It takes the truth that Christ fulfills the covenant and twists it into contempt. It says the promises are spiritual now, and ethnic Israel is irrelevant, if not problematic. And from there, some slip into resentment, as if centuries of Jewish suffering mean nothing. Christian friends, that posture cannot survive Romans 11. Full stop. Paul forbids arrogance. He calls Israel “beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” He warns gentiles that they stand by faith, not by superiority.
You can hold a covenantal framework. You can reject dispensational charts and still tremble at Paul’s warning. You can believe the land promise ultimately finds its fulfillment in the new creation and still expect a future turning of many Jews to Christ. Those positions are not mutually exclusive. What is excluded is pride and hatred towards ethnic Jews. This is not up for debate for the follower of Jesus.
So, what does practical theology look like in this moment?
It looks like remembering that the story did not start in 1948, and it did not start in Washington. It started when God made a promise to Abraham that would one day lead to a Jewish Messiah hanging on a Roman cross for the sins of the world.
It looks like saying clearly that antisemitism is wicked. It looks like preaching the Gospel “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1). It looks like engaging modern politics with nuance, not Hitler-rehabbing insanity baptized as “Christian nationalism.” It looks like refusing to use Genesis 12 as a talisman and refusing to use covenant theology as a gas chamber.
Most of all, it looks like humility. The same God who preserved the line through Abraham, through exile, through centuries of failure, is the God who grafted gentiles in by sheer mercy. If He is not finished showing mercy to Israel, then Christians have no business hardening their hearts.
Tell the whole story, and both ditches lose their appeal. The covenant was never about tribal pride. It was about Christ. And Christ is still gathering a people, from Israel and from the nations, into one redeemed family.
Do who’s this guy that we should take his opinion seriously?
I don’t look at WHO this guy is ( his bio is at the end of the article ). I read his arguments to see if they are Biblical and sound.
Who are any of us that our opinions matter? Looking at his argument carefully, it is well considered and biblical, taking neither the cobbled together Dispensationalist approach, or the (I think) anti-Semitic “replacement” theology. Following the thread of salvation history, God clearly has worked through a series of dispensations each building upon the last. Seeing the Church as the fulfillment of the promises to Israel but also includes Israel which is Paul’s main point in Romans 9-11.
Then, after establishing his credentials as an impartial, objective observer who's carefully weighed both sides ... he supports one of the sides after all.
That is, he suggests that one side is 90% correct, the only other 10% correct.
The second ditch is more corrosive.
Ah, there's the giveaway. The "second ditch" which is only 10% correct.
All I know for sure is that God is an unchanging God who makes promises and keeps them regardless of whether I understand and cooperate or not.
I do not believe any of God’s promises come to an end anymore than his love or mercy does.
So I am not going to get between God and his intentions for Israel. I think that would be very unhealthy for both individuals and nations.
Your inability to refute his arguments makes him very credible, don’t you think?
Lazy apologetics.
To this guy, pretty much anyone who thinks Jesus fills the Covenant is drifting into Hitler territory. And the real gem, that Jewish suffering over the centuries somehow should transcend the message of Jesus? “No man comes to the father but by me”. NO exceptions or side deals.
Is he not aware of the incredible unimaginable suffering of Christians over the centuries? And yes, often at the hands of Jews, such as in the USSR? Such as yesterday in Lebanon where the IDF filmed itself bulldozing a statue of St George, or “settlers” burning west bank Christians out of their homes?
Guess he got his 7000 dollars...
You are heading twoards a “ I never knew you.” Your fruit is rancid.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Pretty clear...pretty concise. Jesus didn’t say “except of course, for the people trying to get me arrested as a heretic at this very moment”.
“The OP seeks legitimacy by pretending to take a “middle of the road” approach, avoiding the “extremes” on either side.”
I saw him talk about the extreme on the standard Christian theology. Twice he said it is flirting with Hitler apologetics. In hundreds of millions of people you can find someone to eventually say anything. But I defy anyone to point me to a Christian faith or theology that supports Hitler or genocide.
He acts like that is something people who believe Jesus and his believers ARE Israel naturally lean towards.
The second ditch is more corrosive. It takes the truth that Christ fulfills the covenant and twists it into contempt.
So what does Romans 11 say about the natural branches, and promises to them?
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him?I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. [One must be a true believer in the Christ to be of the remnant.]
What then? Israel [after the flesh] hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then,
Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches ["Israel after the flesh" 1 Co. 10:18], be graffed into their own olive tree?
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sa kes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11)
Note: do not ask me to try to explain election here, suffice to say that while we realize effects of the choices of others, good and evil, yet ultimately souls will only be judged according to what they themselves are accountable for in their respective judgments (Deuteronomy 24:16; cf. 2Ki 14:5,6; 2Ch 25:4; Jer 31:29,30; Ezek 18:20; ; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:13)
Thus we see that the natural branches, Paul's "kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rm. 9:3) the historical people of God ("His people") are a distinct people who need conversion to be saved, but writing in the first century, the apostle states that as a class they were overall judicially blinded (according the principle that unto whom much is given, much is expected, which judgment applies to all:" Lk. 12:48), as Paul himself once was, punishing Christians as he sought to serve God.
And after the gospel was first preached to the natural branches, who overall rejected it, then most conversions began to be among the Gentiles, for as Paul declared in his last attempt to reason with them: "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." (Acts 28:28) Yet whom Paul warns against being themselves cut off in presumption of the grace of God.
And while partial blindness remains among the historical people of God, yet the apostle fortells and looks forward to the full fulfillment of Isaiah 59:20, the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (Romans 11:25-26)
Even the RCC, while imaging the extensive references to Christ's 1,000 millennial reign can be relegated to spiritual fulfillment, yet the CCC (674) affirms that the Lord's coming awaits his recognition by "all Israel" upon whom a partial hardening has come. But as for the pretrib rapture, I see that has occurring toward the end of the 7-year tribulation.
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:6)
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