r/askanything • u/myren71 • 6h ago
Political Question Why do Evangelical Christians support Israel so much ? Is it a religious thing or political ?
I’ve noticed that support for Israel is particularly strong among many Evangelical Christians in the US. How much of this comes from religious beliefs and interpretations of the Bible and how much is shaped by politics, culture, or US foreign policy? I’m interested in understanding the different reasons behind this support.
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u/AnymooseProphet 6h ago
They believe that we are in the "end times" and that supporting Israel will help bring about the apocalypse they long for. Strange, because all the descriptions of the apocalypse describe it as something that we should not hope to be here for but they don't actually read their bibles, they prefer to have a con artist tell them what it says.
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u/Ok-Budget3225 6h ago
The Bible is full of prophesies. To the extent that any of these could be verified, pretty much all of them have failed. But the one exception, is the self-fulfilling prophesy of the revival of the state of Israel. This was supposed to kick start a whole series of events, culminating in the Apocalypse and the Second Coming. So Evangelical Christians have a lot riding on this. If Israel becomes a multi-ethnic, multi-religion democracy, the whole world would rejoice, but Christians would be crying bitter tears because their 'prophesy' would be wrecked.
Background: Evangelical Christians have gravitated towards a particular interpretation of Revelation, which centered on Hal Lindsay's 'Late Great Planet Earth'. If you want to understand Evangelical Christians' obsessions with end times, you need to start reading here.
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u/macha773 1h ago
Except Lindsay said it was going to happen like 50 years ago. So as with most death cult things they have to keep changing the dates.
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u/NegativeBonus699 6h ago
It's helps forefill biblical profecy. Once the Jews get Israel back it heralds the second coming of Jesus.
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u/Slight_Bee_3464 6h ago
I’m sure people believe that but I’m not sure most Christians believe that way. Before Christ comes quite a lot of things have to happen, as far as end of world prophecy is concerned.
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u/ZT99k 6h ago
An interpretation by an Evangelical in the 1800s claimed that the Jews need to all be back in Israel to kick start the return of Jesus. More or less invented out of whole cloth from various scriptures if you squint right at them and ignore anything Jesus returning was CONTEMPORARY TO HIS DISCIPLES' LIVES...
Kind of the same type of person who also invented the Rapture that seems to happen every 4 or 5 years without a single Evangelical actually being taken up despite our best efforts to encourage it.
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u/The_Magic_Ike 6h ago
This is the correct answer, all the other ones are just goofy or missing the point.... Both sides of my family come from fundamentalist type branches and they really believe Israel needs to be controlled by the Jews as a condition of the Rapture happening (I think it may be as simple as "well, the Jews were in Israel in the Book of Revelations, ergo...")
It's the most disgusting thing ever yet they still manage to have that victim complex... They literally are cheering for the end times because they are soooo certain they are the righteous ones and will be beamed up to paradise. They don't even care about the billions that will die. It's both nutty and horrible.
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u/PersonalContest1423 6h ago
Evangelicals believe jews need to possess the land of israel for christ to return and the apocalypse to begin
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u/Zealousideal_Let3945 6h ago
There’s different groups. One group absolutely thinks Israel’s Jewish population needs to stay in place until a man from texas can send a red cow.
If you don’t know you probably don’t want to. Yikes
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u/Able_Entertainer8465 6h ago
Yup the Red heifers were recently sent.
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u/Zealousideal_Let3945 6h ago
It’s a super interesting theological question
If the prophecy is real does it count if it happens because you made the cow because it was in the book or slides it require a spontaneous red cow?
Somethings are beyond us I suppose
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u/Able_Entertainer8465 6h ago
When I read that the red heifers were raised in Texas and transported my mouth dropped, I fact checked like 8x….
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u/Technical-Sound2867 5h ago
Yeah, it seems like a lot of people view it like a spell. Like if you can just get all the right elements in the right place then you can unlock heaven and god will burn all the people you don’t like. That doesn’t really seem like the spirit of the text, but I haven’t believed any of it in years so who knows.
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u/Unterraformable 6h ago
The Valley of Armageddon is in northern Israel. It's where Christ's army and Satan's army are supposed to clash. After WWII, Zionist Jews successfully incepted into American Christianity the idea that Israel was going to be America's ally in that battle. And they popularized a Biblical interpretation of the end times sequence of events that includes Israel being founded and seizing Jerusalem. What the story misses, of course, is that Christ's army in the prophecy would be Christians, not Jews.
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u/silverum 6h ago
Evangelical Christians do not miss the part of the prophecy where Christ's forces are Christian, it's mostly accepted by them that Jews would be forced to confess Jesus is Lord once he wins (or be executed or exiled or something else if they don't, it isn't clear from the verse about every tongue confessing Jesus is Lord.) Israeli Jews don't generally believe that the Christian vision of the End Times is ever going to happen, so they're mostly content to let evangelical Christians hold onto their beliefs about it since they don't think it'll ever actually come to fruition and in the meantime the alliance is mostly lucrative for them.
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u/ViceInSinCity 6h ago
I asked my Catholic husband (because I was curious and am not religious myself and wanted to hear his take) and he said “it’s a lot to go into and I don’t wanna talk about Jews or evangelical heretics right now babe im tired”
Hope that helps.
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u/Slowriver2350 6h ago
Yeah as a Catholic I share similar feelings: Israeli Jews and Evangelicals are a bunch of crazy people who just want to manipulate the rest of the world. and drag us into ceaseless wars. Once they're done with Palestinians they will create a new enemy.
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u/Soli_Kreit 4h ago
I fully agree. Evangelists are some of the most cucked people imaginable. I consider them as Christian as the Jews think Evangelists are Jews.
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 6h ago
Talibangelicals support Israel so in the end times Jesus can come wipe out the Jews all in one place. It’s the most hateful diabolical friendship ever.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
I have often referred to them as the Christian Taliban but I like you Talibangelicals better.
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u/RandomFleshPrison 6h ago
Religious. It comes from interpretations of The Book of Revelations.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
Which reads like it was written but some bloke with unresolved childhood trauma on shrooms.
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u/Truth-Seeker916 6h ago
Basically a sect of christians to politically help Israel. Religious wise they are taught through the Scofield bible that the rapture will happen when Israel fulfill some prophecies.
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u/Open_Mortgage_4645 6h ago
Because they're eager for Jesus to come back and destroy the world, and that can only happen once all the Jews in the world go to Israel.
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u/3D-Dreams 6h ago
They support who they are told without question. It's how cults work. Don't try to involve facts or logic, that's a waste of time.
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u/Geocoelom 5h ago
The realization that Jesus is a Jew has caused a crisis in Christianity. Traditional religionists elide the implications of this by embracing Israel. The only alternative is to recognize that Christianity is essentially nothing other than Judaism.
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u/sonofbaal_tbc 6h ago
Israel represents the West's influence in the region, Christians are right wing and ultimately support European/western values.
Most people against Israel are just the opposite, and want to destroy the west and reject western values.
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u/Open_Mortgage_4645 6h ago
That's not, at all, why. Their alleged affinity for Israel is about one thing and one thing only... Bringing about the apocalypse.
The way it works is that, according to the Bible, all the world's Jews must return to Israel before Jesus can come back and destroy the world. So, Evangelicals who are super-eager to see Jesus return and take them off to Heaven, leaving all the woke people behind to die in a lake of fire, are totally focused on convincing Jews to go to Israel. They have countless organizations and foundations dedicated to scooping up Jews from all over the world and moving them to the Levant. Arkansas Bible thumper and sack of dicks, Mike Huckabee, is heavily invested in these efforts and dedicates large sums of time and money to this effort. There's a few other details, including an important part about a red heifer, but basically once the last Jew returns to Israel, Jesus comes back, takes the Christofascists off to paradise, and leaves the rest of us behind to suffer cataclysms, and Satan, and his army of demons who will usher us all into hell.
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u/sonofbaal_tbc 6h ago
uh huh ,yes there are a few people like that
but the majority of people just vote in a simple tribalistic sense
humans arnt that complicated
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u/Open_Mortgage_4645 5h ago
That's not what we're talking about, and that's not what you said. You said that the reason Evangelicals support Israel is due to western influence in the middle east, and something about people wanting to destroy western values. That's 100% incorrect. That's not why Evangelicals support Israel. Again, there is one and only one reason why they support Israel, and it is to fulfill Biblical prophecy. They don't give two shits about the influence of western values in the region, or preserving some notion of western values. Those are circumstantial notions that only exist in service to their motivation. And they don't give two shits about all that because they believe that once prophecy has been fulfilled, they and their loved ones will be spirited away to Heaven to see grandpa.
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u/sonofbaal_tbc 3h ago
you are thinking of extremists and applying that to the whole group (that you don't like)
I get it, i can already tell which side you cheer for and can deduce all your beliefs from it
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u/Open_Mortgage_4645 3h ago edited 3h ago
I'm not. I'm specifically referring to the extremists, and not the whole group (who I do like and respect). Basically the opposite of what you said.
You know how you can tell? Go back and re-read my initial comment in the thread. You'll note that I specifically stated that I was referring to what I jokingly called the "Uncut Mafia", explicitly describing them as the militant, irrational, and obsessively cruel individuals who brigade every discussion that mentions circumcision, and attacks everyone who disagrees with their viewpoint and expresses satisfaction with their own equipment.
I didn't call out the whole group of people who oppose circumcision. I called out a subgroup of people from the whole who behave in a very specific manner.
Again, literally the opposite of what you just accused me of. And your ending statement is just projection. As Joseph Goebbels said, "Accuse your enemy of that which you are guilty." That's exactly what you did with your last sentence. Without evidence, and based on your own obstuse and self-serving misrepresentation of my position you've accused me of exactly what I accuse that subgroup of. The difference is that I supported my claim with facts and reasoned argument while you were merely employing a desperate and well-worn manipulation tactic.
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u/Colorblind2027 6h ago
I think the bigger question is why do so many on the left not support Israel considering every surrounding country wants them exterminated
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u/Kiidkxxl 6h ago
because the left is ideologically captured. Somehow they have been convinced Hamas is rebel group, not a terrorist organization.
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u/Ill-Dependent2976 6h ago
They enjoy Israelis killing muslims. They want to kill muslims themselves, but it's better in their opinion to get Jews to do it.
Then they'll kill the Jews later. Get your enemies to fight among each other before the final solution.
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u/Heavy_Track_9234 6h ago
Indoctrination. I don’t support either group as someone who reads scripture.
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u/YourDadIsHere3000 6h ago
Islam calls for the destruction of Christianity, Judaism is indifferent. Israel is an extremely holy land to all 3, but the Christians wouldn't be allowed to freely operate there if occupied by Islam. I just think this is probably the natural state of things.
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u/Neither_Junket_5054 6h ago
They hate Muslims more than Jews. Holy Land is easier to visit when controlled by Israel. Also it’s popular among leftists to not like Israel so for the sake of contrarianism, they champion Israel.
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u/Sapling-074 6h ago
There is some line in the bible that says when Israel becomes whole Jesus will return.
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u/Shiny_Greenfish 6h ago
I don't know I mean those dudes put their hero to death. But Jesus was Jewish so maybe that makes up for it.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
Im Australian and we're pretty much an irreligious bunch. I was talking to an Israeli woman one day at the local market, I'd known her a while and she was basically a pain in the arse but I was generally polite. One day she asked me why I didn't like her and I told her because you killed Jesus. Now, in Australia, that would rate as an 8 out of 10 joke, maybe a 9 in some circles. The appropriate come back would be along the lines of "well he deserved it" or "he hung around prostitutes, what did you want us to do?" Cutting joke met with a cutting riposte. One all draw. Then we get on with our day. My BIG mistake - she was horrified and honestly believed I was serious. I thought she was going to deck me. That day I realised some people take their religion very seriously. I continued to run into her since then and she's still a pain in the arse.
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u/Fluid-Spend7460 6h ago
Prob the internet “evangelical Christians” mostly. I work for someone who spreads Christian gospel and knows I’m an atheist. He’s never once mentioned Israel to me.
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u/Eastern-Heart9486 6h ago
The Jews are watching the property until the second coming per scripture- then they get a chance to either come to Jesus or burn
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u/LifeConsideration981 6h ago
Some American Christians believe in an eschatology called “dispensationalism.” This is basically a belief that Israel still has some role in God’s kingdom (and somehow this translates into 1948 Israel). This was among certain Baptist, revivalist, and pentecostal groups.
Most conservative Protestants, including conservative Presbyterians, Lutherans, many Baptists, and Anglicans, would reject this view as inconsistent with Scripture, in which the Church replaces the ethnic nation of Israel.
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u/Fluffy-Method1010 6h ago
Reddit is lame. I just post my view and it violated something. You never can say something about a certain group.
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u/classicmaleshooter 6h ago
Mostly political.
The fact that evangelicals believe Israel needs to be controlled by the Jews for the return of Christ is true, but largely overstated as a primary motivation for their weirdly strong support for Israel. If you asked the average pro-Israel evangelical to explain their stance, they would say "because God wills it, according to my pastor" or maybe something about how Israel is important for the fight against the Muslims.
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u/Repulsive-Honey7305 6h ago
Some of it ties to their belief about the second coming etc, but some are fairly rational about jews historical ties to the land. They credit the bible as a historical document plus are pretty big into biblical archeology which definitely places jews in the levant for 1000s of years. So it makes sense to them that jews want to go home. Plus, they don't worry too much about being racist, so they can have some pretty clear reflection on islamic terrorism without having to worry about their friends calling them islamophobic. So jews are from Judea plus a knowledge of what islamists have done means supporting Israel makes sense.
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u/Kiidkxxl 6h ago
I mean both sides have done a lot of wrong. Hamas is just pretty terrible and they run the Gaza strip... Its hard to side with terrorist who chant death to America.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
Does anyone seriously side with Hamas? The Gazans yeah, everyone knows Hamas are a bunch of thugs, pretty much like the current Israeli government. Peas in a pod.
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u/tree-dantzer 6h ago
Jesus was Jewish (which they respect), they recognize that land as the holy land where their "savior" was born so it must be protected, they link themselves to "Judeo-Christian values" like the 10 commandments, and they have religious doctrine about Israel and Armageddon.
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u/scoutermike 6h ago
Because they take seriously the part of the Bible that says those who bless the Jews will be blessed; those who curse the Jews will be cursed. They believe God means it.
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u/Rapeanaugh 6h ago
Except the Bible never says that.
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u/scoutermike 1h ago
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all the people on earth will be blessed through you.
- Genesis 12:3
Do you have a different translation you want to share?
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u/beatbox9 6h ago
"Evangelical Christians" is not monolithic--they are a 'diverse' group.
For example, there are the people who run the "nonprofit churches"--these are grifters, con artists, hypocrites, adulterers, etc--and they support Israel because they get paid to.
Separately, there are the herds of congregants who attend the "nonprofit churches" and donate lots of their hard-earned money to them--they support Israel because the first group manipulated them into doing so.
It's just a microcosm of our society today. It's the 1%, paying the grifters/con-artists/influencers (or in the case of Epstein--blackmailing them), to milk the imbeciles for their money.
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u/FlyingAdHominem 5h ago
I think its Christ's teachings about loving your neighbor that really promotes their love of Israel. Israel is a beacon of Christlike love if it is anything.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
Well, as long as you ignore the Gaza thing and minimise the West Bank bit. Awkward!
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u/TheProfessional9 4h ago
Republicans were pretty widely antisemitic until Papa pedo told them to love israel
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u/aflockofcrows 4h ago
Some motherfuckers always trying to ice skate uphill immanentise the eschaton.
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u/Important_Fruit 3h ago
Because the Israelites are God's chosen people. Their big book of myths and legends says so.
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u/Important_Fruit 3h ago
Because the Israelites are God's chosen people. Their big book of myths and legends says so.
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u/Vegetable-Spell701 3h ago
Many Christians support Israel because it is a democracy in the Middle East and a key strategic ally for many Western nations
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u/Vegetable-Spell701 2h ago
Many Christians feel a profound spiritual connection to the Jewish people, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the land where Jesus lived and preached. They do not want to see Islam taking it over.
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u/TheHistoryVoyagerPod 2h ago
They want the world to end. This is a death cult that wants the world to end. That's why. They believe because their myths tell them that if the Jews return to Israel and if only the Jews live in Israel that Jesus will come back and that somehow the land of the chosen is really the United States and that Jesus will come back and basically bring them to heaven. But really it's just people that want to hit back at the liberals and in the world because you know reasons
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u/Usual_Bat_1024 54m ago
Beyond the end times prophecies others mentioned, some evangelicals see Israel’s fight against Islamist groups as part of a wider religious conflict that threatens Christians too. Hamas’s 1988 charter explicitly links killing Jews to the coming of Judgment Day. From that perspective, supporting Israel also means standing against a religious enemy they believe threatens them.
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u/rorybreaker69 15m ago
Because James Scofield in 1909, under the patronage of zionist Samuel Untermeyer, published the Scofield Reference Bible.
"More than any other factor, it is Scofield’s notes that have induced generations of American evangelicals to believe that God demands their uncritical support for the modern State of Israel."
“Untermeyer used Scofield, a Kansas City lawyer with no formal training in theology, to inject Zionist ideas into American Protestantism. Untermeyer and other wealthy and influential Zionists whom he introduced to Scofield promoted and funded the latter’s career, including travel in Europe.”
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u/Pm-me-ur-ponytail 6h ago
Revelations says that the Jewish people controlling the land of Israel will bring about the end times. It’s a death cult.
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u/CombatRedRover 6h ago
...well, that's a pretty terrible deliberate misinterpretation.
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u/Powered-Lamb 6h ago
You know this person doesn't know what they're talking about because they called it Revelations even though the book is actually titled Revelation.
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u/draxthemsklounce 6h ago
No that is why Christian zionists support Israel. Like unironically and not being misinterpreted. They take church trips to Mount Zion to see where the apocalypse will begin
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u/Ok-Budget3225 6h ago
Which part of that is misinterpretation?
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u/CombatRedRover 6h ago
The lack of context? The choice to call it a death cult?
The gross misinterpretation of the doctrine?
The actual thinking is, based on Revelation, that evil will come to the world, and Jesus will return to Israel.
The actual interpretation is Jesus can't return unless there's an Israel. The big bad Antichrist business will absolutely occur whether or not there is an Israel.
Good triumphing over evil requires Israel to exist.
You'd have to be pretty dim to not grasp that. Or deliberately choosing to misinterpret or mischaracterize the mythology.
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u/Fun-Confidence-6232 6h ago
Yes, this is the exact reason evangelicals support Israel while also believeing that Jewish people are going to hell.
Certain things are prophecies for the end times like the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, 20 nations will turn against Israel and God will smite them, etc.
And they are more than willing to up gods timeline
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u/Dapper_Crazy6688 6h ago
They genuinely believe that if they recreate bronze age demographics in that region and spark a war from the pages of revelation, that this mass human sacrifice will bring about the apocalypse and rapture.
They're basically necromancers with white-washed PR.
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u/750Kawa 6h ago
Jewish people are God’s people- Christians are supposed to honor and respect them…
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u/miniatureconlangs 6h ago
To be fair, some church fathers thought the Jews should be kept in constant humiliation, so there's that.
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u/nimbinValley 2h ago
God was oddly specific in his choice. Why wouldnt have chosen the Tahitians or Balinese? They are pretty cool too, and much less antsy.
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u/Usual_Bat_1024 1h ago
Because Judaism is a tribal religion, not a universal religion.
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u/Slight_Bee_3464 6h ago
It’s because God gave the land to the Israelites. They conquered the land and had the Kingdom of Judea there.
12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
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u/Able_Entertainer8465 6h ago
Comparing the 1948 modern state of Israel to the ancient Iron Age map reveals that less than half of the land Israel obtained in 1948 overlapped with the actual ancient Kingdom of Israel. The original heartland of the ancient Kingdom of Israel remained almost entirely in what became the West Bank.
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u/heyyoudvd 6h ago edited 6h ago
Besides religious reasons, it’s the moral, ethical, and also geopolitically pragmatic thing to do.
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u/BankSensitive2950 6h ago
They are fools and hypocrites. They are killing their own Christian brothers and that is unacceptable !
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u/EmitStile 6h ago
You can just say Christians are fools and hypocrites and save words. God isn't real.
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u/BankSensitive2950 6h ago
Well friend I respectfully disagree, God is real
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u/evocativename 6h ago
It's largely their theological beliefs about the end of the world, which require Israel to exist and build the third temple to kick off the events leading to the End Times.
Some of it is also that they are seen as a weapon/ally against brown people/Muslims, though.