Too often, Israel is seen as a popularity contest, especially on social media. Humans are quite simple really, we look at the number of likes a post has and assume that because it is popular, it must be correct. Well, those of us without critical thinking skills do that at least.
You probably realise this, but Christian Zionists are in the minority. It’s true that we are seeing movements like CUFI growing, with more Christians connecting with us each day. Globally speaking, and outside of the Church, however, it is easy to see that those who oppose Israel are greater than the number of those who support Israel. And there are a lot more people in between who don’t know where they stand.
Christians are easily the largest supporters of Israel globally because our Judeo-Christian faith is anchored in God’s Word, which leads us to being Zionists. After all, God Himself was the originator of Zionism.
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with over 2.3. billion adherents, but in total Christians are less than a third of the world’s population, making up just 31% of the total.
Sadly, not all Christians are Zionists. Even though Christians profess to follow Jesus using the Bible as their guide, certain foundational Bible truths, such as God’s love for Israel, have become controversial topics in the Church. ‘Replacement Theology,’ the false belief that Israel has been replaced by the Church, has weaselled its way into the pulpit and some of the largest denominations of Christianity have embraced it, resulting in hundreds-of-millions of Christians being led astray.
Christians are not being fed the truth, and then when they enter the world they are witnessing a lot of animosity towards Israel. They turn on the news and are inundated with biased reports that paint Israel in a bad light. Global bodies like the United Nations are constantly attacking Israel. Justice systems like the ICC and ICJ have been manipulated against Israel. There are widescale demonstrations on the streets of their cities, and online they are seeing anti-Israel propaganda being spread like wildfire.
In churches, it’s little better. We hear from many Christians who are unable to find a church that is openly supportive of Israel. Some feel they are lone voices of support for Israel in their church. Pastors too are being silenced from speaking the truth about Israel from the pulpit because of a backlash from congregants. It can take just one anti-Israel member to stifle all talk on Israel in a church.
The Church cannot be effective when we compromise on Biblical truth. Christians will struggle to proclaim the truth in a hostile world when pastors are too fearful to proclaim Biblical truth about Israel from the safety of the pulpit.
This is a battle of truth against lies. Satan is weakening the Church through lies.
Jesus deals with lies head on in John 8:44, saying, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
In this passage, Jesus is addressing a group of religious Jews who are challenging His teachings. Jesus was emphasising the direct contrast between the pure truth of God and the deceitful nature of the devil. Jesus was saying that those who are rejecting Biblical truth are aligning themselves with Satan.
Satan is the master manipulator behind all anti-Israel lies and propaganda, including the lie of Replacement Theology that has infected the church.
The enemies of Israel do not suffer this same division because again, the master manipulator behind it all, Satan, is pulling the strings of each group. We see different groups that oppose each other on certain issues coming together in hatred against Israel. A prime example of this is the far-left and far-right of politics. They hate each other, but are united in their antisemitism.
Likewise, looking at allies of Israel and allies of the Palestinians on a religious context, we have a divided Church that is failing to correctly stand up for Israel, but Islam is united against Israel. The Arab League is an example of this. They may disagree on certain topics, some nations may even be unfavourable to each other, but they all agree when it comes to Israel.
Unlike Christians, the Islamic world is much less divided on the issue of ‘Palestine’. They stand firmly behind the Palestinian people and can be quite ferocious in their activism.
We know that the vast majority of Jews are Zionists, or pro-Israel. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Muslims are anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. The difference between these two groups is that there are only 15.7 million Jews on earth but there are over 1.9 billion Muslims. That means there are 120x more Muslims than there are Jews, or an increase of 12,000% more Muslims than Jews on earth. And there are 49 Muslim majority countries in the world, while there is only one Jewish state.
Many non-Christians, who do not have the Bible to guide them, are likely going online and seeing the massive disparity between those who support Israel and those who hate Israel. They will look at the numbers and could be persuaded to think that Israel is the problem. There are likely many being led astray by the sheer number of lies that are being spread by many more people than there are spreading the truth.
The old adage goes, “If you think everyone else is wrong, it’s probably you.” This is there to help people reflect on their own viewpoint and to see if, maybe, they’re in the wrong because no one else agrees with them. However, it is foolish to apply this kind of flawed logic to the things of God.
The Bible is filled with examples of God’s people standing as the minority against the majority. Narrow is the path that leads to heaven and broad is the way that leads to hell, after all.
Examples of the righteous minority are found throughout Scripture. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were the only ones who had the courage to stand while everyone else worshipped the golden statue. Elijah had the courage to face 450 prophets of Baal alone. David, for example, stood as one man against Goliath when no one else had the courage to fight him.
Each one of these examples either shows the majority doing the wrong thing and the Godly men doing what was right. Or, the majority knowing what is right, but being too scared to do it.
It takes courage to stand up for Israel. You have to have a strong conviction and for Christian Zionism, or defending any Christian belief, you have to be grounded in the Word of God. We have to ‘drive like Jehu,’ and drive antisemitism and anti-Zionism out of the Church. We must be fearless because God is on our side. “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” – Romans 8:31
We are in the minority, but we have the truth of God’s Word on our side. Be fearless in standing up for the truth, especially in your church.
