Modern Israel and the Church: An Interview With Dr. Jon Weatherly (Part 1)

Note to Reader: If you are like me, you are struggling to know how to think biblically about modern Israel and their military conflicts. Does the Bible say we must always support them? What are the relevant Bible verses that people cite here? Is this war a sign of the end times? About 12 years ago Dr. Jon Weatherly wrote an article for CHRISTIAN STANDARD on this same topic that went semi-viral and can be viewed here. Today, we revisit this controversial topic.

I recently conducted an online interview with New Testament scholar, and my dear friend, Dr. Weatherly to get his unique perspective on this subject. Weatherly currently serves as Associate Minister at Twin City Bible Church in Urbana, IL. He has also served as Professor of New Testament and Vice President for Academic Affairs at both Cincinnati Christian University and Johnson University. Weatherly completed his PhD in New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. 

Due to the length of the article, it will be published it in two releases, one now and one next week. 

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By Tyler McKenzie

Q: For those struggling to understand, what is the reason American Christians insist that our government support modern Israel? 

First let me say I’m not an expert on the current religious situation or its modern history. As a New Testament scholar, my expertise is elsewhere. Here I’m an interested observer. 

Broadly I think American Christians insist on pro-Israel policy because they’re heirs of a history of enthusiasm for Zionism. This is the movement to reestablish a Jewish state in the territory where Israel settled in the Bible. That enthusiasm was probably grounded partly in the desire to make amends for the terrible history of antisemitism in Europe, often supported and sometimes instigated by the church, and culminating horribly in the Holocaust. 

Tied to this Zionism was a hope that the resettlement of the Israelite homeland by modern Jews would somehow trigger a wave of evangelism across the Middle East. Christians for centuries have been troubled by the way Islam has dominated the lands of the Bible, where Christianity had once flourished. Many believed a revival of Christian faith in the region would precede the return of Christ. Some saw the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 as the specific precondition of Christ’s return. 

It is also a misappropriation of the first half of God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” For many, this means God expects them to be unconditionally supportive of the descendants of Abraham, whom they equate with the modern state of Israel. Some will even say God gives eternal salvation to individuals on the basis of their faith in Christ, but he grants a blessing to whole nations according to their treatment of Israel. Some cite Matthew 25:31–46 in this regard, seeing the judging of “nations” (v. 32) not as all the world’s peoples being judged individually but as each nation in aggregate standing before the divine judge, and “the least of these my brothers and sisters” (vv. 40, 45) as Jews or more specifically Israeli Jews whom the faithful serve.  

For now, I’ll simply say this view is hard to square with the context of these passages and with a God who doesn’t treat people differently according to their ethnic identity (Acts 10:34–35). Jesus’ family is all humanity in one sense (Luke 3:23–38), all who believe in Jesus in another (Luke 8:19–21). 

Q: Briefly summarize your beliefs on the role Genesis 12:1-3 plays in the Old and New Testament?  

It is vital we see Genesis 12:1-3 in the larger story Genesis is trying to tell. With that, we can see the rich theological perspective directing the story of Israel in the Bible. Genesis 1–11 is well known as the account of creation and fall, followed by events underlining the tragic and awful consequences of human sinfulness: Cain’s murder of Abel, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel.  

That last story is important as an account of the “genesis” of “the nations,” not simply what we think of as modern nation states with governments and borders but various tribal groups, distinct in language, culture, religion, associated with particular lands, and largely hostile to each other. Israel’s pagan neighbors mostly thought individual nations had their own stories of beginnings making them fundamentally different from their neighbors. This often was a justification for aggression against other tribes: we are a different kind of people, our ways are better, our gods are better, and if we can conquer those other nations, we should. Genesis told a different story: humanity is one big, dysfunctional family, created by the one true God, the God of Israel, and across the board in rebellion against him, so they presently experience the curse of their rebellion in their conflict with each other. For a poetic description of this condition, read Psalm 2:1–2 after reading the story of Babel in Genesis 11. 

So what is the God who promised the woman’s seed would crush the snake’s head (Genesis 3:15) going to do with these “nations” whose confused conflict is the curse of their prideful rebellion? He’s going to bless them. That’s Genesis 12. It’s crazy. Thank God it’s crazy. 

Even crazier is how he says he will do it: through old, childless Abraham and Sarah. Somehow their descendants will become a great nation. And Abraham’s “seed” (reminding us of the woman’s seed) will bless all the nations. The God who made the nations will thus reclaim them for his rule, removing their curse of deadly conflict and blessing them with life. 

God is always using the weak and insignificant in his story, as he does here. That becomes true of Israel, who becomes a “great” nation in worldly terms only as compared to being no nation at all. With the exception of a brief period under David and Solomon, biblical Israel is never important to its region’s economy or politics or military situation. 

Eventually one is born in Israel who himself epitomizes his nation’s insignificance and brings the promised blessing as Abraham’s true “seed” (Galatians 3:16). That’s Jesus, of course. The true children of Abraham and heirs of Abraham’s promise are thus those who belong to God by faith in Jesus, regardless of tribal identity or any other differentiating characteristic (Galatians 3:26–29). 

Q: To be clear, is Israel still a chosen people who have rights to a special place? Is the covenant permanently binding? Or is this replacement theology? 

I think the Bible is clear on this, but it’s tricky to express clearly because history has left us with so much baggage. So I’ll try to set the history and frame my response to the question. 

As I noted, the history of Christianity carries a legacy of antisemitism. One of the ways this was expressed is the idea that when the crowd in Jerusalem called for Jesus’ death, Israel as a nation forfeited its status as God’s people, and so God turned to the Gentiles, who by faith in Jesus “replaced” Israel and were granted the status as God’s chosen. This is a really pernicious, unbiblical idea with just enough truth and plausibility mixed in to sound convincing. 

In reaction to that bad notion, many substitute the idea of an unconditional covenant between God and Israel, unconditional meaning nothing any human does can alter it. A few extend this even to eternal salvation, but for most it means Israel is still “chosen” for a special place on the map and in world affairs. Their claim to the land is taken as permanently binding, and their status as God’s chosen is taken as requiring others to give them deference. 

The problem here, I think, is failing to see how God made an “eternal” covenant with Israel. The Bible’s emphasis is always on God fulfilling his promise to bless humanity with life even though humanity has chosen rebellion and death. God repeatedly points out human failure, including especially biblical Israel’s failure, but always goes on to affirm he will bring his unmerited blessing in fulfillment of his covenant with Israel. And the New Testament is unequivocal: Jesus fulfills that promise entirely. There are no other bits to be fulfilled, side deals for land or regional hegemony for a particular tribe. All God’s promises to Israel have reached fulfillment in Christ, especially in his death and resurrection but also in his present rule from heaven and his future rule when he returns to restore all things. 

So is the covenant permanently binding? Yes, in that God did not abandon the promise because of anyone’s unfaithfulness. Does this mean Israel has a permanent right to the land it was given? No, that mistakes what the covenant was about. It’s about blessing all through the one true Israelite. 

Note well: it may have been a reasonable idea to create a new Jewish state of Israel after the Holocaust. It may be a decent idea to support that modern nation diplomatically and militarily. We just shouldn’t confuse those with fulfillment of God’s plan in the Bible. 

Q: If the promise of blessing and cursing now applies to those who believe or reject Christ, why are so many Christians suffering? What sort of blessing should we expect to receive from belief in Christ? 

We are always, first and last, followers of Jesus carrying crosses to the place of crucifixion (Mark 8:34–9:1). Any reading of the New Testament, any reading of either testament, that doesn’t conclude God’s people are a suffering people is ignoring most of the story, especially its climax. 

Further, if we think God will respond to our particular act of obedience with tangible blessing—health, prosperity, political and military power—we’ve paganized God. The God of the Bible is not transactional; he doesn’t trade blessings for good deeds. He calls us to trust him, and he blesses us in ways we only come to understand with time and wisdom, ways we never deserve. We don’t press his buttons. He doesn’t have them. We submit to him because in him alone is life. 

But when you live this life in response to the gospel, and when you hang out with others who do the same, you learn where the blessing is. It’s in the trusting, the obeying, the loving, the learning, the growing. And death won’t interrupt it, let alone end it. It’s a better blessing than world-leading GDP. 

**THIS ARTICLE’S CONCLUSION WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT WEEK

Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Author: Christian Standard

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