What About Israel Today? The Jewish People, the Modern State, and the Christian

Few questions expose the confusion surrounding Israel more quickly than this one: “Do you support Israel?”

It sounds simple. But before answering it, we need to ask another question: What exactly do you mean by Israel?

Do you mean the Jewish people? The modern State of Israel established in 1948? The Israeli government presently ruling that state? The biblical nation God chose through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Or the future Israel Scripture says God will restore under her Messiah?

All of those things are related. But they are not identical. And much of the confusion surrounding Israel today comes from collapsing categories that Scripture keeps distinct. Someone criticizes the Israeli government and is accused of opposing Israel. Someone affirms God’s continuing purposes for Israel and is assumed to support everything its government does. Someone grieves Palestinian suffering and is accused of abandoning the Jewish people. Someone condemns antisemitism and is accused of ignoring Palestinians.

Christians need better categories than that. We do not begin with Washington, Jerusalem, Gaza, politicians, podcasts, or social media. We begin with the Word of God.

The Jewish People Remain Israel

Before we talk about the modern State of Israel, we need to talk about the people of Israel.

Paul does something enormously important in Romans 9. Writing after the cross, resurrection, Pentecost, and establishment of the church, he speaks about his Jewish “kinsmen according to the flesh” and says:

“They are Israelites.”
—Romans 9:4

Not they were Israelites. Not they used to be Israel until they rejected Jesus. They are Israelites.

Paul is speaking largely about unbelieving Jewish people, and yet he continues to identify them as Israel. Their unbelief has not erased their identity.

That gives us an important distinction: Ethnicity does not guarantee salvation. But unbelief does not erase ethnicity.

The Jewish people remain the historic people descended through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the people through whom God unfolded His covenant purposes and ultimately brought the Messiah into the world.

But that does not mean Jewish people possess another path to God. Paul’s grief in Romans 9–11 exists precisely because his fellow Israelites need to be saved. In Romans 10:1 he writes, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”

National election is not individual salvation. Jewish blood cannot forgive Jewish sin. Possessing the promises is not the same thing as possessing the Savior.

There is one Savior, one cross, one gospel, and one way sinners are reconciled to God: Jesus Christ.

Yet Israel’s unbelief does not mean God has abandoned His promises either. Paul says that although they presently stand opposed to the gospel, “as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29).

Their unbelief is real. But so is God’s faithfulness. Their rejection of Messiah is real. But so is God’s election. Their need for salvation is real. But so are God’s promises.

The Modern State Is Significant—but It Is Not Yet the Kingdom

That brings us to a more difficult question. If the Jewish people remain Israel, what should Christians make of the modern State of Israel?

In 1948, Jewish people once again possessed national sovereignty in their ancestral homeland after centuries of dispersion. Today, millions of Jewish people live in the land where Abraham walked, David reigned, the prophets preached, and Jesus ministered.

Christians should be cautious about dismissing that as biblically meaningless. The Abrahamic Covenant included promises not merely concerning a spiritual idea, but real people and real land. God promised Abraham in Genesis 17:8, “I will give to you and to your offspring after you…the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.”

But we need equal caution in the other direction. The modern State of Israel is not yet the restored Israel described by the prophets.

When Scripture describes Israel’s ultimate restoration, it describes far more than Jewish people living in the land. Ezekiel anticipates spiritual cleansing, a new heart, a new spirit, and God’s Spirit dwelling within them. Jeremiah anticipates the New Covenant. Zechariah anticipates Israel looking upon the One they pierced and mourning for Him. Paul anticipates the removal of Israel’s present hardening and declares that “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). That has not happened yet.

Modern Israel may place Jewish people back in their ancestral land. But it has not yet placed Israel under her Messiah. So was 1948 historically remarkable? Absolutely. Is there good reason to regard it as providentially significant? Yes.

But Christians should be careful about attaching a Bible verse to every election, border, settlement, war, military victory, or political development and announcing, “Prophecy fulfilled.” We should never claim more revelation than God has given us.

God’s Election Does Not Make a Government Infallible

Perhaps the most important distinction for Christians discussing Israel today is this:

The Jewish people are not the same category as the State of Israel. The State of Israel is not the same category as the Israeli government. And the Israeli government is not the same category as the kingdom of God.

Governments change. Prime ministers change. Political coalitions change. Policies change. God’s promises do not.

Israel’s privileged relationship with God never meant Israel could do whatever she wanted and stamp “God’s chosen people” over it. In fact, God told Israel in Amos 3:2:

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Election did not eliminate accountability. Election intensified accountability. Nathan confronted David. Elijah condemned Ahab. Isaiah denounced injustice. Jeremiah condemned oppression. Amos thundered against those who trampled the poor. They were not anti-Israel. They loved Israel enough to tell Israel when Israel was wrong.

The same distinction matters today. Believing God’s promises to Israel remain irrevocable does not require believing every decision made by an Israeli government is righteous. Biblical support for Israel has never meant biblical silence about Israel’s sin.

Neither Erasure Nor Canonization

So how should Christians respond?

Our culture tends to offer two easy options. One error erases Israel. The other canonizes Israel. Scripture permits neither.

Christians should reject antisemitism without qualification. Paul explicitly warns Gentile believers, “Do not be arrogant toward the branches” (Romans 11:18). The Christian response to Jewish unbelief should never be conspiracy, ethnic suspicion, mockery, or hatred. Paul models sorrow, prayer, humility, and gospel longing.

At the same time, Christians should refuse to give any modern government theological immunity. We stand with Israel ultimately by standing first with Israel’s God. When something is righteous, we can call it righteous. When something is sinful, we can call it sinful.

And our concern for Israel must never make Palestinians or Arabs an afterthought. Before anyone is Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli, or Arab, he or she is a human being created in the image of God. A Palestinian child is not less valuable because God made promises to Abraham. An Israeli child is not less valuable because Palestinians have suffered.

Human dignity is not a zero-sum game. Christians can condemn the deliberate murder and kidnapping of Jewish civilians while grieving innocent Palestinian civilians killed in war. Those convictions do not compete. They flow from the same biblical understanding of human life.

And ultimately, Jews and Palestinians share the same deepest need. Palestinian Muslims need Christ. Secular Israelis need Christ. Orthodox Jews need Christ.

There is not one gospel for Israel and another for Palestine. There is not one Savior for Jews and another for Arabs.

At the foot of the cross, both stand as sinners who can be reconciled to God only through faith in Jesus Christ.

What This Means for Me

1. Reject antisemitism wherever you encounter it. Criticizing a government or policy is one thing; hostility or suspicion toward Jewish people is another. Christians should recognize the difference clearly.

2. Do not confuse God’s promises with political infallibility. God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel does not require you to defend every action of a modern government.

3. Refuse to dehumanize Palestinians or Arabs. Every person bears God’s image, and Palestinian Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

4. Practice humility when interpreting current events. Biblical prophecy tells us where God’s redemptive story is going. It does not necessarily tell us how to interpret every headline along the way.

5. Above everything else, desire Israel’s salvation. Paul’s great burden was not merely that Israel would be protected, prosperous, or politically secure. His “heart’s desire and prayer to God for them” was that they would be saved.

Final Word

What good is possessing Abraham’s blood if you reject Abraham’s God? What good is living in Abraham’s land if you reject Abraham’s Seed? What good is returning to Jerusalem if you never come to Jesus?

Christians do not ultimately love Jewish people merely by defending their nation. We love Jewish people by longing for them to know their Messiah.

So we reject hatred. We refuse idolatry. We defend human dignity. We exercise political humility. And we preach Christ.

Neither erasure nor canonization. Neither pretending Israel means nothing nor pretending Israel can do no wrong.

Instead, we see Israel as Scripture sees Israel: chosen by grace, accountable to God, presently in unbelief, beloved for the sake of the fathers, and desperately in need of her Messiah.

And the story is not over. Paul tells us that a day is coming when Israel’s present hardening will not have the final word:

“And in this way all Israel will be saved.” —Romans 11:26

That is where the story of Israel is headed.