Does apocalypse theology drive evangelical support for Israel? A new study appears to question this oft-voiced assumption.
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Dr. Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, an organization dedicated to serving and evangelizing Jews, recently reflected on surprising new data on this issue.
“What struck me is that nothing has changed since October 7,” Glaser said of evangelical support for a Jewish state. “There’s a lot of bad press about Israel, (but) … 70 to 75 percent of so-called NAE evangelicals who really believe in the essence of the gospel are very favorable toward Israel.”
Another interesting data point is that a majority of Christians (87%) strongly or somewhat agree that believers should support the Jews, regardless of their opinion that Jesus is the Messiah.
Glaser said this is notable because the “conversion of Israel” is believed to be an apocalyptic prophecy, or the belief that “the Jews will turn to Jesus in the last days.”
“There’s this idea that the reason Jews are important, the reason Israel is important, is because of their role in the last days,” he said. “So our researchers don’t fully believe in Jesus. They’re just completely disinterested scholars. They’re very objective and very smart, but one of them said to me, ‘Wow, I was wrong. Christians aren’t as utilitarian as I thought they were, and they truly believe that God laid hands on the Jews, chose them, and that Christians have an obligation to be kind and to support the Jews.’
Glaser, who has been a Christian for decades, said the evangelical support is based on the occasional suspicion that there are “secret motives” among Christians to convert Jews. But he believes the findings will dispel such controversy. And the report itself explains the real motives beyond pro-Israel sentiments.
“Our data show that generalized eschatological urgency alone is insufficient to explain attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, given covenant theology, evangelical identity, and moral evaluations of Israel’s use of force,” the report states. “Instead, support for Israel appears to be based on structured theological commitments and normative judgments rather than the proliferation of apocalyptic beliefs.”
Glaser, like the researchers behind the data, admitted he was “pleasantly surprised” by the results and asked some important questions.
“So the real question is…’What is the fundamental driver of evangelical support for Israel?'” Glaser continued. “What’s the driving force? Is it Biblical? Is it socio-moral? Is it just a theory of war? … And I’m happy to say it’s Biblical.”
Glaser said a majority of even young evangelicals believe that the Abrahamic Covenant, God’s promises to the land and people, remains valid today. See more of what he had to say.
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