An interesting and, perhaps, terrifying aspect of Christian Zionism is that it commands Christians to side with modern Israel politically and militarily, turning a blind eye to their atrocities and without making a scriptural judgment regarding the wisdom of such a move.
In spiritual warfare, there are only two sides – God’s and Satan’s.
No one can remain neutral; although, we may choose to be a non-combatant. The world system, which is dominated by Satan (1 John 5:19), strives to make people believe that all religions are diverse roads to the same God, but that is not true. There is only one way to the true God, and his name is Jesus. (John 14:6) We either find God through Jesus, or we are, by default, outside of God’s family and in the enemy camp. Jesus made this abundantly clear to the Jewish leaders who presumed they belonged to God while at the same time rejecting the only way to God. (John 8:37-44)
God has drawn a line in the sand, so to speak. How we see and respond to Jesus determines our eternity and makes it clear on which side of the spiritual divide we find ourselves.
Our Lord said:
30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Matthew 12:30 (NKJV)
We are either for Jesus or against him.
The apostle John wrote:
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2:22–23 (NKJV)
Using the Holy Spirit’s logic, which many who have drunk from the poisonous well of Christian Zionism find it impossible to do, all who deny that Jesus is the Lord do not serve the one true God and are, by definition, against Christ, which makes them “antichrists.”
The Jews who reject the gospel do not serve the God they want us to believe they serve and are participating in Satan’s agenda on earth, just as surely as most of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day did.
The corollary to this is that those Christians who support the antichrist nation of Israel are aiding and abetting the wrong team, something that Satan is using in an effort to defeat the church while elevating his own agenda through a rebellious nation.
Followers of Christ and those who reject Christ are on opposite sides spiritually and should not join together in a common enterprise.
King Jehoshaphat of Judah, who served the true God, made such an ill-advised pact with Ahab king of Israel, who did not. Ahab convinced Jehoshaphat to join him in battle, using Judah’s wealth and power to achieve his own ungodly ends. By allying with Israel, Jehoshaphat nearly died, and Ahab did. God was not in it. (1 Kings 22) Though the United States may ally with Israel for whatever reasons, Christians should never assign some sort of divine mandate to such a course of action. Governments always seek to co-opt religion to achieve their purposes.
Christians should not support the wars of godless Israel because it will not end well for us or them.
It is true that God superimposes his will on all things, even what was intended for evil (Genesis 50:20), so that the devil’s schemes always eventually work out to accomplish what God desires. (Acts 2:23) Nevertheless, anyone who participates in evil, even when God is working it for good, is guilty of sin. Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus was a necessary part of our salvation, but Jesus said it would have been better for him never to have been born. (Mark 14:21) We dare not support sin as part of some misguided attempt to bring about a “greater good,” such as Christ’s Second Coming. Supporting Israel’s attempts to secure the land called “greater Israel” without the Jews ever acknowledging Christ is to back their ongoing rebellion against God. The land belongs to the “seed” of Abraham, who is Christ (Galatians 3:16), not to modern day citizens of the nation state called Israel. The New Covenant abrogated the Old (Hebrews 8:13). Now all things belong to Christ, including the entire earth, not merely a sliver of land east of the Mediterranean Sea. (Psalm 2:8, Romans 4:13, Matthew 5:5) Since the church is “in Christ,” we share in that inheritance. (Ephesians 1:11) Christians will inherit the earth.
How tragic and sad that many in the church have traded the glorious New Covenant for another Jewish corruption of the gospel, which places the nation of Israel at the center of God’s plan instead of Christ! The true Israel in the New Covenant, according to Scripture, is composed of all those who have been born again through faith in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. (Galatians 3:26-29) God does not have two chosen peoples – the church and Israel. Only those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world can rightfully claim to be part of that group. (Ephesians 1:4) God is no respecter of persons. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. There is no group of people that is more special to God than any other.
Modern Israel and the Jews who do not know Christ need our prayers and efforts to share the gospel with them, but it is a serious error to support their ungodly efforts to establish a worldly kingdom without Christ at its center.
