A common phrase we have been hearing from President Donald Trump in the last few weeks is that Israel would not exist if it wasn’t for him. “Without me, there would be no Israel – because no other president was willing to do what I did,” Trump said this week in Qatar.

Respectfully, Mr President, we disagree.

We believe that neither Israel nor America would exist today if it wasn’t for God Almighty. The American President needs to remember that America is “One Nation Under God”, and that God is the God of Israel who promised to never leave nor forsake His people.

Interestingly, there has been some push back to President Trump’s declarations by Trump’s own US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who also happens to be an Christian Pastor.

Speaking to an Israeli audience this week, Huckabee said, “It is your [Israel’s] heritage, without a doubt, but ministers, it is also the heritage of the United States. Without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be an America. We owe our very existence to what happened in this land.”

Huckabee was referencing an important part of our beliefs. Christians are not the originators of our faith. We are followers of Christ, the son of God, who came to earth as a Jew. As Paul teaches us in Romans:

“Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” (Romans 11:18)

Christianity has strong Jewish roots. God worked miraculously through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and beyond in order to bring about His plans and purposes on this earth.

Christians are grafted in to that Jewish root. Not the other way around. We should never be boasting over Israel or the Jewish people. Even if we don’t see eye to eye on who we believe the Messiah is.

America is a Christian nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in the Bible. The Christian Pilgrims made their way to the ‘New World’ to establish a Christian society. The Christian forefathers of the United States used God’s Word as their source of wisdom and moral guidance as they penned the Constitution. That Constitution is an undeniably Christian text and gives Americans some of the greatest rights and freedoms on planet earth today. Why? Because it was based on Christian values.

More than this, because of America’s Christian heritage and outworking as a majority Christian nation, God has blessed the American people.

Christianity it not a Western faith but was born from the Jewish homeland of Israel. Israel is the place that the Bible says God loves. The Jews are the people that the Bible teaches us God chose. God used the Jewish people and the land of Israel for His Son Jesus to enter the world. Jesus’ ministry was in and around Jerusalem. Jesus was crucified and rose again in Jerusalem. And when Jesus returns to earth, He will return to Jerusalem.

For 250 years God has been making America great because that belief. America’s faltering in more recent times is not because God has rejected America, but because America has more and more turned its back on God.

President Trump himself campaigned with a promise of bringing the Bible back into schools and allowing people to pray where they were being barred from doing so. It appears that he does have at least some understanding of the need for America to reconnect with God.

There is also talk of a resurgence of Christianity in America. That is a wonderful thing! But we are also seeing an increase of Christians in America who are rejecting the Jewish roots of their faith. They may chant “Christ is King”, but many reject the fact that Jesus came to earth as a Jew and was crucified with the words “King of the Jews” written on the cross above His head. They also seem to forget that Jesus will return to Jerusalem, not Washington DC.

America has not been blessed because the American people are special. Instead, America has been blessed because the American people honoured God. Just as the UK, in the past was also blessed until it too rejected its Christian heritage and turned its back on God. There is still hope for both our nations, but we cannot fix the problem without recognising the problem.

If the actions of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are the beginnings of America turning its back on Israel, as some of the rhetoric from the White House seems to suggest, then America is heading down a very dark path.

Some people may think that Israel needs America in order to survive. But the truth is that both America and Israel need God in order to survive.

America would not exist today if God did not do a miracle in the land of Israel 2,000 years ago. America would not be as blessed as it is today if it wasn’t for God blessing the Christians of that land.

Likewise, Israel would not exist today if God did not fulfil His promise to the Jewish people by bringing them back into their homeland in 1948. Israel would have been wiped out in the War of Independence that same year, or the Six Day War of 1967, or any other of the many wars Israel has fought (many times outnumbered) since that time. But Israel survived because God kept His promise to defend Israel and to never allow her to be wiped out.

There is also an additional factor to all of this. God promised that He will judge the nations on how they treat Israel in the last days.

“I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.” (Joel 3:2)

We know that one day America will fully turn against Israel, just as every nation will. It was prophesied in the Bible thousands of years before any of the modern nations we see on the world map were even conceived.

“And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

When the world turns against Israel, the nations will think Israel is about to be wiped out. It is then that Israel won’t have allies to ask for backup. Instead, Israel will only have God to rely on. When that happens, God will show the world His glory. Again, not because Israel or the Jewish people are special, but because God is and he cannot break His promises.

Finally, the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is very unwise to take credit for what God has done.

“For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act; for how can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.” (Isaiah 48:11)

Israel exists today because of God alone. America has been blessed because of God alone. He deserves all the glory, and no man should even attempt to take credit for the mighty work the Lord has done.

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