A few weeks ago, I went to a medical clinic in Jerusalem to receive a vaccine before traveling to Africa. In the nurse’s room, a Jewish woman began asking me questions about my trip. I told her I was an evangelical Christian pastor going to an international conference. Immediately, she nodded knowingly and said, “Oh yes, evangelicals love Israel.”
Many of us Jews feel these evangelicals love us for the wrong reasons.
I explained to her that many evangelicals do indeed claim to “love Israel,” but often for the wrong reasons. Her face grew serious. She thanked me for saying that, and then confided, “Many of us Jews feel these evangelicals love us for the wrong reasons. Because of their end-times views, they want to bring us all here so that a global war will come, we will be killed, and their Messiah will arrive.” She paused, then gave an image so striking I will never forget it: “It feels like a man who fattens a duck, feeding her daily and taking care of her—not because he loves her, but so that one day he can slaughter her.”
Her words capture the deep suspicion and unease many Jews feel toward the false love of Christian Zionism. This is not a love rooted in Christ but in a manipulative eschatology. It may be wrapped in the language of blessing, but at its core it treats the Jewish people as pawns in someone else’s prophetic scheme.
Ironically, just a few days later I turned on Israeli morning news and saw a self-proclaimed evangelical bishop being interviewed. He was lamenting the fact that Israel is losing support among young evangelicals. With passion, he promised to work hard to bring the younger generation back, to teach them to “pray for Israel” and to show uncritical loyalty, no matter what Israel does.
Watching him, I could not help but feel the tragic irony: he assumed that evangelicals would remain silent about injustice, indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians—Christian and Muslim alike—and oblivious to the witness of Jesus Christ.
Christian Zionism is not simply a theological oddity; it is a stumbling block to the gospel.
Both stories highlight the same problem. Christian Zionism is not simply a theological oddity; it is a stumbling block to the gospel. It distorts Christian witness to Jews, Muslims, and all the peoples of the Middle East.
Biblical and theological concerns
Christian Zionists often cite Genesis 12:3 (“I will bless those who bless you”) or Zechariah 14 to justify their position. Yet the New Testament reinterprets these promises in Christ. Paul insists that the true seed of Abraham is Christ himself, and all who belong to him by faith (Galatians 3:16, 28–29). The dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been torn down in Christ (Ephesians 2:14).
To apply territorial promises directly to the modern state of Israel bypasses the gospel. As the apostle Paul writes, “No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20). As theologian Gary Burge has observed, in his book Who's Land? Whose Promise?, “Christian Zionism essentially reverts the Church back to the shadows of the Old Testament, ignoring the fulfillment brought by Christ.” (Whose Land? Whose Promise?).
I believe that the verse in Genesis 12:3 applies now only to Jesus and the blessings that come from his salvation and its impact on the nations & the expansion of his Kingdom, nothing more and no one else.
A stumbling block to the gospel for Jews
If evangelicals support Israel merely to trigger Armageddon, then our “love” is no love at all—it is manipulation.
The Jewish nurse’s words reveal how hollow the Christian Zionists' “love” often feels. Rather than opening doors to the gospel, it hardens suspicion. If evangelicals support Israel merely to trigger Armageddon, then our “love” is no love at all—it is manipulation.
New Testament scholar Stephen Sizer warns in Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon?, “By promoting the state of Israel as a theological necessity, Christian Zionism hinders Jewish people from considering Jesus as their Messiah.”
True gospel witness must not be entangled with political agendas but point clearly to Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah.
An obstacle to the gospel among Muslims
When they see evangelicals endorse oppression, killing, displacement, and war, they conclude that Christianity itself is unjust.
The witness problem is not only with Jews. Across the Arab and Muslim world, people watch how Christians relate to Israel. When they see evangelicals endorse oppression, killing, displacement, and war, they conclude that Christianity itself is unjust.
This is devastating for evangelism. Instead of hearing good news, Muslims see Christians aligning with those oppressing Muslims (among others). As long as Christian Zionists defend policies that harm Palestinians, our Muslim neighbors will see Christianity & our gospel as hypocrisy rather than hope.
A betrayal of the gospel to the nations
The television bishop embodied this betrayal. By promising unconditional loyalty, he suggested that evangelicals must choose nationalism over the clear teachings of Christ. But Jesus calls us to love our neighbors (Luke 10:27), to bless the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), and to stand with the oppressed (Isaiah 1:17).
Supporting injustice in the name of prophecy not only distorts the gospel to Jews and Muslims but to the nations of the Middle East as a whole.
We betray the very kingdom we are called to serve.
The church’s mission is to proclaim reconciliation through the cross: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). When we replace this vision with political agendas, we betray the very kingdom we are called to serve.
A call back to Christ-centered witness
The way forward is not hostility to Israel and Palestine, nor indifference to Palestinian and Jewish suffering. It is a call to a Christ-centered gospel witness that loves all people—Jew, Muslim, and every human being—without compromise.
We must reject end-times schemes that use people as props and return to the gospel that proclaims Jesus as Lord of all.
Only then will our love be genuine. Only then will our witness carry integrity before all the nations. Only then will we embody the message of the kingdom: love, justice, peace, and reconciliation in Christ.
Rev. Dr. Jack Sara is the President of Bethlehem Bible College. Born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem, Jack studied at Bethlehem Bible College after committing his life to Christ and his teachings. Jack is an ordained minister with Evangelical Alliance Church in the Holy Land where he still maintains an overseeing role with the leadership of the churches. He is the General Secretary for the Middle East & North Africa Evangelical Alliance and works extensively in the areas of peace & reconciliation.
