Resource: Primer on Israel

A ceasefire is not peace. A ceasefire is a cessation of active fighting with specific goals and responsibilities from both parties, often including the provision of aid to civilian populations affected by the war and the release of hostages. The January Israel-Hamas agreement included scheduled exchanges of hostages held by Hamas and its related terrorist partners in Gaza and criminal prisoners held in Israel. These exchanges are ongoing.

While dozens of hostages have been returned to Israel and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released as part of the ceasefire, new fears are emerging about the fragile agreement. The recently returned Israeli hostages are emancipated, and there have been reports of rape and torture. Hamas also claims Israel violated the terms of the agreement and is threatening to delay future releases.

On February 11, President Donald Trump indicated if Hamas does not release the remaining 76 hostages, as agreed, he will pursue action in the region, although what they may look like is unclear. 

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-palestinians-would-not-have-right-return-gaza-2025-02-10

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-gaza-hamas-ceasefire-hostages-release-delayed-trump-ultimatum

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/17/questions-and-answers-hamas-led-armed-groups-october-7-2023-assault-israel

Let’s remind ourselves how we got here. After WWII, the Jews had nowhere to go. No one wanted them. So the nations who won the war told those living in the land that is now Israel to get out. It was 1948. The Palestinian people essentially became—and continue to live as—refugees. A stateless people. One wonders what those who conceived of the plan to dislocate the people who were living in what we now call Israel thought would happen. Where did they imagine those people would go and what kind of life did they imagine they would build? Whatever the ideas of those who crafted the plans after WWII, the reality is that terrorism arose. Hamas is one of the terrorist organizations committed to the destruction of the nation of Israel and the elimination of the Jewish people.  

Hamas, and Iran’s other proxies in the region, exist to wipe Israel off the map. They are intent on killing every man, woman and child who they view as occupying their land. How can those two groups of people ever live at peace and how can one piece of land ever reasonably belong to those two warring peoples?

Many have tried— and many have failed to bring peace to Gaza. The Israel-Hamas war is the latest in a longstanding conflict between two peoples with dual claims on one strip of land. 

President Trump has even suggested the U.S. “take over” the Gaza strip and re-develop it. There are numerous legal and humanitarian concerns over how that would happen, but one thing is clear— the status quo is not working.

Historically and biblically, Israel is an ethnic people group, with whom God made everlasting covenants, those covenants include the Promised Land.  However, to equate the modern nation state with the biblical theocracy or even Davidic-era Judaism would be to err.  

As we read in the Bible, the Jewish people were distinctly called and chosen by God for His glory and purposes. This is a theme consistent throughout the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. Jesus reminds us in John 4:22: “for salvation is from the Jews.”

Certainly, the contemporary nation state of Israel is a distinctly Jewish state but it is also a decidedly secular and democratic state, organized after WWII as a refuge for ethnically Jewish people.  

Notably, not everyone in the nation state of Israel today is a Jew and not every Jew in the world lives in the nation state of Israel.  

When considering the nature and relationship between Jews and Christians, certain questions arise about the nature of Judaism and Christianity, Israel and the Church.

Do Gentile Christians become Jewish in some way when they are engrafted into the Body of Christ?

Do Christians replace Jews and does the Church replace Israel in God’s redemptive history?

How do we understand the modern secular Jewish nation state of Israel in relation to the Biblical theocracy of Israel?

Is it a people or is it a place or is it both? Then, now or both?

It seems there are at least three competing approaches when discussing the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, Israel and the Church. The first equates the Church with Israel, the second sees them as distinctly different and the third sees them as overlapping. The approach you adopt leads to vastly different conclusions for evangelism, interfaith work and eschatology.

Interpretation #1: The Church and Israel refer to the same group of people. You will hear this called fulfillment theology, replacement theology or supersessionism.

In this view, Christians have replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people and the Christian Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen instrument in the world. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ has replaced or superseded the Mosaic covenant as Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Old Covenant. Under this interpretation, the covenants and promises given to Israel are transferred to the Church and Jewish people are no longer God’s chosen people.

From this theological perspective, Jews must convert to Christianity in order to be a part of God’s covenant people – or in evangelical parlance: in order to be saved. Why? Because the New Covenant replaces the old, the Church replaces national Israel (and the land promises) as the true ekklesia of God.

This view is constructed upon the foundation of Covenant theology and requires that the unconditional nature of God’s covenant with the Jews be transformed into a conditional covenant.  According to this view, after the advent of Jesus, only those Jews who convert to Christianity are the legitimate “Israel of God.”

Interpretation #2: The Church and Israel are different groups of people: You will hear this described as dispensational theology which holds that God relates to humanity in a series of dispensations or periods in history.

Dispensationalists believe in an eschatological end times perspective in which God literally fulfills the promises to Israel contained in the prophecies of the Bible, including those in the book of Revelation. These promises include the land promises, a millennial kingdom and Third Temple where Christ, upon his return, will rule the world from Jerusalem for 1000 years.

Thus, the covenants and promises of ethnic Israel are not transferred to the Church. The Church is instead a new spiritual reality with a distinct purpose and destiny apart from and exclusive of the Jews.

For the dispensationalist, the modern nation state of Israel is a secular reality populated by people who, although being presently disobedient to the terms of the New Covenant (in that they deny Jesus is the Messiah), they are still the Chosen People of God and they have divine right to the land by means of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant.

This theological construct is criticized for dividing the people of God into groups who have separate programs of salvation (one for the Church and another for Israel). But dispensationalists believe that Israel will one day come into saving faith in the Messiah and that all Israel shall be saved (Romans 11:25-26).

Dispensational theology can have the effect of minimizing the relevance and importance of the Old Testament scriptures or at least subordinating them to a lesser status in the life of a Christian believer who sees the Church as living in a distinctly different period of history than that which was true prior to the coming of Jesus.

Interpretation #3: The Church and Israel overlap in some manner:  

This is called Remnant theology and serves as a more nuanced approach to the conversation.  In this theological model the Church partakes of the covenants of the promises given to Israel but does not replace Israel.

The metaphor here is the olive tree. The Church is understood as grafted into Israel. All saved Gentiles spiritually become Jewish (Romans 2:29, 4:16 and Ephesians 2:12-19) and all saved Jews are saved through Jesus Christ, the one and only Messiah of God.

To understand Remnant theology, we have to also understand in the Bible there is a distinction between the nation of Israel and Remnant Israel. The nation of Israel exists in a period of history but once in diaspora, the Jews exist largely outside of Israel. Just because a person was geographically located in the nation of Israel did not guarantee they were a believing Jew. It is equally absurd to say a person could not be a believing Jew outside of the nation of Israel. God always preserves for Himself a Remnant.

Remnant Israel is a body of believers, engrafted into this body is the Church. The two become one in a way that remains a mystery. How so? Look at Paul. He considered himself part of remnant Israel (Romans 11:1-5), part of Christ (Romans 9:3), and part of the Church (Ephesians 5:29-30).  There is no replacement, no different dispensation but something congruent, even synonymous.  

Let’s start here: 

1. Pray. God remains God. God remains sovereign. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He has not forgotten His covenant. He has not changed His mind about the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. God has not forgotten the blessing nor his hesed love. Pray the prayers of the Old Testament with and for your Jewish neighbors and friends. Pray too for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for a way to safety for those fleeing war and pray for miraculous provision for people on all sides. Pray for justice to be executed while innocents are spared. Pray for wisdom around the world. 
2. Incarnate the Gospel. Live as though your presence re-presents Christ to others— because it does. Assure them of your solidarity. Grieve with them. Listen to their stories. Attend to their trauma. 
3. Prepare for war and fight it on your knees and in your prayer closet.
   • Take seriously the enemy prowling around right now. Flee from him, yes, but also prepare to enter the spiritual battle with the armor God provides.
     • Ephesians 6:18 “…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert (be watchful, attentive, ready) with all perseverance”
     • 1 Peter 5:8-9 – Be sober-minded (calm and collected in Spirit, circumspect); be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith…”
     • Put on the full armor of God: Ephesians 6
   • Recognize the weapons the enemy tends to use and learn to counterpunch:
     • Distortion (Know God and the Truth of His Word; Psalm 145, Exodus 34)
     • Division (Maintain unity and be an agent of reconciliation; Eph 4; 2 Cor 5:17-21)
     • Depravity (Know the difference between good and evil; cultivate the good, the beautiful and the true; Phil 4:8)
     • Distraction (Do not be tempted to turn to the left nor to the right; stay on the narrow way with Jesus; trust Him, follow Him, obey Him.)
     • Destruction (John 10:10. The devil has a plan for your life and it is death. Resist the devil. Recognize his tactics and fight back by the power of the Spirit of the living God)
     • Discouragement – sometimes dressed up as hopelessness, failure, fatigue, accusation, abandonment. See the big picture. Get God’s perspective. 2 Kings 6:14-16
     • Death. We face death all day long in our culture today. But we know the One who conquered death, along with its sting and its power. The reality of Jesus’ resurrection must be our constant focus in the days in which we now live. Jesus was able to look beyond the cross to the glory set before Him and thus He was able to endure. Do you see the glory beyond the current crisis? Romans 5:3-5; Romans 8. 
4. Speak truth and dispel lies. Patience and grace are required in the conversations of the day. Both in person and online, Christians must be people who care about the truth, seek the truth, speak the truth and are unwilling to pass along anything but that which is true truth. That means we have to slow down and verify. And then, once we know the truth, be willing to speak it in order that lies and half truths are dispelled. Shine light in darkness. 
5. Choose your words carefully.
   • Evil. The slaughter undertaken by Hamas terrorists against people in southern Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023 was evil. The President of the United States called it “pure unadulterated evil.” In order to understand the term evil we have to know what is good. These are theological, worldview distinctions. But if you believe there is no God, no maker of heaven and earth, then there is no Judge and no way to judge between good and evil except by your own limited experience of what “feels” right or wrong to you. So what feels right to a member of Hamas drives him to act. Is he wrong? Who rightly judges that? However if you believe there is a God, the maker of heaven and earth, the creator and giver of Life, then you have an eternal unmoving reference point for categories like good and evil, right and wrong. With God as my reference point, I can judge between the right and wrong, good and evil. But without God as a reference point, I become the arbiter. How can that possibly work? I am too small for that. My perspective is too limited and insufficient. 
   • Tragedy or atrocity? Which world should we use? Here we ask the question of moral responsibility.  A tragedy is something terrible that happened but it is no one’s fault. A terrible accident. A natural disaster. These are tragedies. Murder. Rape. Kidnapping. These are acts of individual people against other people. These are not accidents. These are intentional acts of evil. These are atrocities and we should say so. 

The questions on our minds are not simple or easy ones— they cut to the heart. And in this lifetime, we will not have all the answers. But amid the uncertainty, pain and turmoil, we remember God has told us the end from the beginning. We remember that evil may be strong, but God is stronger. We remember the Story and how He has already told us it unfolds. And we look forward with a sure hope to the day when there will be no more evil and no more pain.