why christians have become israel’s best friends

WHY CHRISTIANS HAVE BECOME ISRAEL’S BEST FRIENDS
Don Feder
National Religious Broadcasters Journal, February-March 2003

Christian Zionists? The _expression almost seems a contradiction in terms. Zionists are supposed to be Jews. In the past, the American Jewish community was the bedrock of support for the Jewish state--providing financial support, lobbying Washington and educating the public on Israel’s importance to the United States.

But Zionism is undergoing a not-so-quiet revolution. Increasingly, Hava Nagilah is sung by church ladies with a Midwestern twang and Southern Baptists are drinking
L’Chayim-- with grape juice. Today, Israel’s most reliable--and often most vocal--friends are to be found among evangelical Christians. While relatively new to the cause, they are fervent in their devotion to the Jewish state. What drives them and is their faith warranted?

On October 11, 2002, the Christian Coalition of America--previously known primarily for its adherence to a social conservative agenda--held a Christian Solidarity for Israel Rally at its national convention in Washington, D.C. Speakers like Pat Robertson, the Coalition’s founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, endorsed Israel’s claim to a united Jerusalem and all of the land of the Biblical nation, including the West Bank. As Coalition members waved Israeli flags (provided by Americans for a Safe Israel), Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert exhorted them to keep the City of David the undivided capital of Israel. Benyamin Elon, former minister of tourism in the Sharon government, proclaimed, “We are the Children of Israel come back to the land of Israel.” For an organization accustomed to hearing pleas to end abortion and oppose gay rights at such gatherings, it was--to say the least--unprecedented.

Coalition President Roberta Combs followed up on that historic event by taking a group of the organization’s national leaders on a solidarity mission to Israel. Combs recalls that as a child her father would lead the family in a prayer for Israel each evening…

At the dawn of the 21st century, when one thinks of Israel’s more prominent defenders, the names that spring to mind are Robertson, Gary Bauer, Janet Parshall, Alan Keyes and Jerry Falwell--all Christians. Even the secular media is beginning to catch on. Last year, 60 minutes, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal did feature stories on Christian support for the Jewish state.

After two years of suicide bombings and unrelenting attacks on Israel in Europe, the United Nations and the media, as well as on college campuses, many Jews are shell-shocked. Christians seem eager to step into the front lines. As Christians and as Americans, is their support of Israel justified?

Christianity’s roots are in the Jewish Bible. The God of Abraham, David and Isaiah is also the God of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Christians view the Jewish scriptures as a prologue to the New Testament. Moses was a Jew, not an Arab sheik. Jesus came from the house of David, not a Bedouin tribe. In light of the foregoing, Christian affinity for the parent faith is understandable.

For evangelicals, the Bible is the living word of the living God. When God tells the Children of Israel that he will bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them, Christians note that this is a covenant binding for all time. Similarly, when God gave the land between the Jordan and the Sea to Abraham’s descendants, that precluded a future claim to any of the territory. Unlike mortal man, God does not change His mind. If His commitments to the Jewish people were no longer valid, all of His other promises would be called into question.

There are non-Biblical considerations as well. Since the fall of Soviet communism, Islam has become Christianity’s principal adversary--as it was for most of the 1,400 years of Islamic history. With a few exceptions, wherever Christians are persecuted in the Third World, Islam is the force responsible for their plight. Gunmen murder women and children at a church service in Pakistan. Coptic Christian villages are burned to the ground in Egypt. In Indonesia, Christians are forcibly converted to Islam. Sudanese Christians are enslaved. Nigerian Christians have Islamic law imposed on them. In Saudi Arabia, the world’s most Moslem nation, conversion to Christianity is a capital offense, church services (even in private homes) are forbidden, Bibles are confiscated as contraband and, during the Gulf War, U.S. military personnel--who were there defending the medieval monarchy--were told not to wear crosses lest it offend the sensibilities of their “hosts.” Saudi schools teach unvarnished hatred of Christians and Jews.

The Moslem Brotherhood--precursor to Hamas and Islamic Jihad--had a saying: “First the Satvrday people (Jews), then the Sunday people (Christians).” Christian Lebanon is no more. Throughout the region, thousands of ancient churches and other Christian sites have been deliberately destroyed. Under the Palestinian Authority, Bethlehem’s Christian population has been reduced from a clear majority to a minority of only 20 percent. The London Times reports: “Life in (PA-ruled) Bethlehem has become insufferable for many members of the dwindling Christian minority. Increasing Muslim-Christian tensions have left some Christians reluctant to celebrate Christmas in the town at the heart of the story of Christ’s birth.” All of this has increased feelings of solidarity with Islam’s Jewish victims. Many Christians understand that should the PLO’s banner fly over the Old City of Jerusalem, the city most holy to their faith would be lost to them as well as to the Jews.

We are in the midst of a worldwide jihad. The same forces that destroyed the World Trade Center and persecute Christians in the Third World, deploy terrorists in Tel Aviv and Hebron to murder Jewish women and children.

Christians also relate to Israel as loyal Americans. They understand that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and a steadfast ally of the United States…a nation that shares our heritage. Christians understand the biblical roots of colonial America--that without ancient Israel, the United States would not exist. How fitting, then, that this nation played a key role in Israel’s rebirth in 1948…

Israel speaks to the essence of what it means to be a Christian. This tiny nation--somehow surviving amidst genocidal, oil-rich neighbors--is a living validation of the Bible’s promises. Thus, it evokes the hopes as well as the deepest longings of Christians everywhere.

After two millennia, Christians and Jews find themselves on the same side of the barricades, confronting the forces of darkness. Perhaps it was always intended to be so.

(Don Feder, a former Boston Herald writer and syndicated
columnist, hosts a talk show on WROL-AM/Boston. He is the organizer
of an upcoming interfaith Christian-Jewish conference to take place
in May in Washington, D.C. [please see details below].)

Shabbat Shalom to all our readers!