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Israel & Christians Today
Biblical understanding about Israel
Isn’t the real agenda of Evangelicals to get Jews to convert and accept Jesus?
This is a complex question that deserves a thorough answer.
If one speaks of agenda in terms of motivation for support and conditions for relationship, the answer is clearly “no.” Evangelical support of Israel is neither motivated by nor conditional upon the thought of Jews converting to Christianity.
Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that one day all peoples will recognize that, but to say that the “agenda” of those who have a love for the Jewish people and an appreciation of all that we have received through them is a “front” or some kind of “tactic” to produce conversion is not true. It is a gross oversimplication of a multi-layered issue.
Jesus – the Jew – both unites us and divides Christians and Jews. As Christians, we know the Love of God, and His special heart for the Jewish people through our relationship with Jesus and the teaching of the Word of God. As Christians, it is our obligation and joy to share the Love and blessing of Jesus with all peoples. To not be honest about our commitment to Jesus as Messiah would be wrong. But the question of our relationship with the Jewish people, and indeed God’s relationship with the Jewish people, is different than our relationship, or His relationship to any other people or culture on the planet. Romans reminds us that we are the wild olive branch that has been grafted into the Covenant. We are not to be proud or boastful over the root, but to stand in prayer and support.
A growing group of Evangelical believers are more focused upon actually living the lifestyle that truly reflects the unconditional love and the grace of the God they serve – the very God Who made an everlasting, irrevocable Covenant with the Jewish people. If our lifestyle truly reflects our beliefs, then people will probably ask questions about our faith, and when they do, we then have been invited to share – with love and honesty – as to how our relationship with Jesus has given us a love for them and a commitment to stand with them. Sharing about Jesus – who is the focus of our faith – comes from the joyous “overflow” of our relationship with Him and not from some hidden agenda; if we do share, we in a way seek to do the job of the Holy Spirit, whose work is to reveal God. Our New Testament Scriptures tell us in Romans 11 that our lives should “provoke the Jew to jealousy, “which means to encourage and inspire each Jewish person to rediscover and recommit to their awesome identity, calling and relationship with the God who has kept and preserved them through the centuries. The Jesus we serve said, “You are the salt of the earth…” Salt makes one thirsty and if we are truly living as The Lord has called us to live, then our lives will make others thirsty for His Presence and as they seek Him, He Himself will lead them into all truth.