Midway through a tour of Israel sponsored by that country’s government, my particular group was entertained by a mysterious South African Jew named Stanley Goldfoot. After a charming time in his home, he directed our conversation to the rebuilding of the temple. Though he did not state it directly, Goldfoot led me to believe he would be willing to use force, if necessary, to wrest the temple site from Muslim control in Jerusalem. And he explained how Christians could provide encouragement and financial support for just such a project.
His appeal did not surprise me, for I know there are militant Jews who would love to lay siege to the Temple Mount. What did surprise me was the seeming credulity among some in my group. They appeared to support fully the notion that occupying the temple site is central to the full redemption of the Jews. But what they, along with many Christians, fail to see is that such blind support of Israel undermines the overall evangelical witness of the church.
Blinded By Love
I realize that in the broadest sense, all who take the Bible seriously love Israel. Like most Christians, I genuinely love this land where Jesus walked. But is it possible to love Israel so much we fail to see a nation primarily made up of unrepentant people—people who in any other land would be referred to as lost? Says James Reapsome, editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly, “It is dangerously possible to be so enamored with the land, and to be so taken up with Israel’s cause, that one can forget the desperate spiritual blindness engulfing Israel today.”
One of the major factors contributing to this love affair with Israel is Israel itself. The government there openly courts American evangelical sentiment, fully aware of our political clout. They know that Americans of a liberal theological persuasion generally favor Arab causes, but that conservatives see Israel as playing an important role in solving the prophetic puzzle of the end times.
That Israelis exploit our predisposition to their nation does not offend me. They have a right to try to influence American public opinion. My concern is that our lack of critical thinking about Israel’s ultimate purpose deflects us from our own Christian agenda and hinders the indigenous Christian church in Israel.
A major part of that agenda is telling the lost about Jesus, something the Israeli government does not want Christians to do. The Jewish community has assumed for nearly 2,000 years that believing in Jesus means assimilation. Therefore, a Jew who declares allegiance to Jesus is declared a traitor and a non-Jew. One way to neutralize our efforts to evangelize Jews is to focus our attention on other matters. And the Israeli government has effectively done this by recruiting conservative Christians to the political cause.
A Gospel Of Politics
Apparently, we are willing to play along. In spite of their frequent trips to Israel, conservative American Christians do precious little missionary work there. Some organizations, such as the International Christian Embassy, even boast of their “nonevangelical witness.” That is, they do not present Christ to Jewish people until they are asked.
Jewish Christians in Israel are perplexed by this, as are their Arab counterparts. As both groups of believers risk family ridicule and government harassment for their witness, they see American Christians unwilling to present the claims of Christ boldly. Furthermore, they are unhappy when major Christian leaders visit Israel and seemingly avoid contact with the indigenous Christian church. In conversations with members of my own tour group, I was surprised at how many of them had no knowledge of the indigenous Israeli church.
And what of that church in Israel? It is small, but growing—today there may be as many as 25 Christian congregations throughout Israel. Some of those congregations, though, are mostly non-Israelis; yet from recent reports of Israeli Jewish Christians, there may be as many as 3,100 Jewish believers now residing in Israel (because of regular opposition, Israeli believers keep a low profile).
The church in Israel is quietly building bridges with other persecuted believers in that region. Jewish and Arab Christians love one another in Christ, in spite of strong political differences. They ought to be enemies, yet Christ’s love unites them. Such love is part of the answer to peace in the Middle East.
If we, too, are to be part of that answer, we must balance our love of Israel with our knowledge of the Great Commission. Prophetic politics cannot be a substitute for proclamation. It is time we return to our Great Commission agenda of proclaiming the gospel in the land of Israel.
SPEAKING OUT offers responsible Christians a forum. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
By Byron Spradlin, senior pastor of New Hope Community Church in Cucamonga, California, and executive director of Artists in Christian Testimony.
