Israel and Hamas: How Should Christians Understand Modern-Day Israel?
Note: My goal with this piece is to help Christians think biblically about current events. Today’s focus is the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
I am not promoting a particular doctrine, nor am I providing a comprehensive look at either the history or the doctrines associated with this topic. Instead, I will consider the current conflict and the history that brought us to this point and then examine the three church positions on the relationship between Israel and the Church. Once we identify the three accepted positions, we are better suited to interpret the current event.
I also have a glossary at the end.
The Outline:
1. Current event
2. Brief history
3. Three doctrines
4. How do I know what I believe?
5. How should I interpret the Israeli / Hamas conflict?
Current Event
On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, killed 1400 people, injured 3,400, and took over 200 hostages. By all accounts, this was the most significant terror attack in Israel's history and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever.
Hamas stated that their reasons for the attack include the desecration of the Al-Aqsa mosque, the continued restrictions of goods to the Gaza Strip, and Israel’s occupation of their homeland. In brief, this attack belongs to a long line of conflicts since May 1948: the year most of the world recognized the State of Israel and the year of the Nakba, a catastrophic displacement of 750,000 Palestinians. These Palestinians were expelled from their homes and became refugees, never again to return to their generational homes.
Brief History
So how did this happen? What circumstances brought us here?
Let’s begin with the biblical account:
After the Lord confused the languages at the Tower of Babel, 70 people groups emerged and settled in the areas of Mesopotamia, Sumer, and Canaan. Eventually, the Lord revealed himself to Abram and said:
“Leave your country (Haran), your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you (Canaan).
"I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. . . to your offspring I will give this land.” Genesis 12:1-3, 7
This promise is called the Abrahamic Covenant, and it is unconditional. There is nothing Abram or his descendants had to do to earn or keep this contract. The plan’s fruition solely depends on the faithfulness of God.
In verse 18 of the same chapter, God becomes even more specific. The land God is giving to Abram and his descendants is from the river of Egypt to the River Euphrates. The scripture found in Numbers 33:50-34:34 further defines these promised boundaries.
The sticking points become this:
1. The Israelites never fully possessed the land the Lord gave them (Joshua 13:1, 13:13, 15:63, 16:10, 17:12).
2. The land has not been an “everlasting possession.” The unconditional Abrahamic Covenant detailed that the land would be an “everlasting possession.” Genesis 17:7-8 reads, “I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants . . . for an everlasting covenant . . . I will give to you and your descendants . . . all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession . . .” However, the land has not (yet) been an everlasting possession for the descendants of Abraham.
For about 200 years, the land belonged to the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. After the Israelite rule, those two kingdoms fell to the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire later fell to the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian Empire fell to the Persian Empire. Finally, the empires of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and Britain governed the land.
Now, according to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, before 1948, during the governance of the Ottomans and Britain, the land known as Israel or Palestine (or Philistine, if we go back to its etymological root) was "home to a diverse population of Arabs, Jews, and Christians, as all groups had religious ties to the area, specifically the city of Jerusalem.” These people inhabited the land, but they did not govern the land. The Ottoman Empire ruled the land until 1928. PCRF continues, "After World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate to govern the land specifically to establish a national home for the Jewish people.”
Then, in May of 1948, the State of Israel was formally formed, governance by Britain ended, and the Nakbab began—750,000 displaced and homeless Palestinians.
Conflict between the two groups has existed ever since.
Christian Doctrine
It may surprise you to discover that not all orthodox positions find modern Israel to be biblically relevant or essential. The doctrine concerning the relationship between the Church and Israel is considered secondary doctrine and has three main stances.
Before we continue any further, let us define our terms.
Primary doctrine is a set of beliefs necessary for salvation and practices on which the Bible is explicitly clear. Primary doctrine addresses sin nature, the unique nature of Christ, heaven/hell, the Trinity, baptism, sexual ethics, and more. The biblical importance/ unimportance of Israel is not primary doctrine.
Secondary doctrine is a set of beliefs that have instigated the varying denominations. These are stances that Scripture allows for interpretative differences, but they can lead to division. The three different stances regarding the Church and Israel fall into this category.
Tertiary doctrines address “matters of conscience” such as alcohol, tattoos, holidays, etc.
Under the umbrella of secondary doctrine, the modern global Church recognizes these three stances on the relationship between the Church and Israel:
1. The Church replaces Israel
2. The Church expands Israel
3. The Church and Israel remain distinct
Stick with me here because what we believe about the Church and Israel determines how we look back at Old Testament prophecy and forward to End Times.
In Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology," he discusses two possible definitions for the Church:
1. The Church is the community of all true believers for all time.
2. The Church is the community of all true believers since Pentecost.
Covenant Christians tend to hold to definition #1 and believe that either the Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people because of Israel's disobedience and rejection of Jesus, their Messiah, or that the Church has been “grafted into” Israel and, therefore, has expanded Israel. This latter camp often cites Romans 11 as scriptural support that Christians are grafted into the “olive tree” of truly believing Israelites (think, Hebrews 11). Therefore, God's purposes and promises for Israel are either transferred to or continued through the Church; that is, the fulfillment of any outstanding prophecies is found in the Church.
Dispensationalist Christians tend to hold to definition #2 and believe God has two distinct plans for the Church and Israel. These plans play out most obviously in End Times. Grudem writes, “God’s purposes and promises for Israel are for earthly blessings, and they are yet to fulfilled on this earth at some time in the future." (For example, Israel has never possessed all the land allotted to them). “On the other hand,” Grudem explains, “God’s plans and purposes for the Church are for heavenly blessings, and those promises will be fulfilled in heaven.”
Progressive Dispensationalist Christians tend to hold a composite view. Grudem explains this viewpoint in this way:
“God does not have two separate purposes for Israel and the Church, but a single purpose – the establishment of the Kingdom of God – in which Israel and the Church both share. . . There is still a difference between progressive dispensationalists and the rest of evangelicals on one point: they would say that the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel will still be fulfilled in the millennium by ethnic Jewish people who will believe in Christ. . .”
You can see how these two definitions of Church and Israel impact one's stance on the relationship between the Church and Israel. And you can also begin to see how the relationship between the Church and Israel begins to impact one's understanding of End Times.
How do I know what I believe? (And why does it matter?)
God keeps his promises. It is part of what makes him trustworthy and true. His faithfulness to the Israelites in the Old Testament, despite their disobedience and wickedness, is, in part, what assures us of salvation today.
These three viewpoints all beg this one question:
Are God’s plans and prophecies for Israel now fulfilled and accomplished through the Church?
If your answer is yes, then you probably hold to a Church Replacement or Church Expansion viewpoint; the nuances of your belief determine either position. Furthermore, if you believe the Old Testament promises are fulfilled in the Church, then you might hold amillennialism, post-millennialism, or perhaps even historic pre-millennialism (also known as post-tribulation, pre-millennialism) eschatological positions.
If your answer is no, then you believe God has yet to or is in the process of fulfilling his promises to Israel. If God has yet to fulfill his promises to Israel, then you see Israel and the Church as separate (stance number 3), and are either a dispensationalist or a progressive dispensationalist. Furthermore, if you believe that the Old Testament promises to Israel still need to be fulfilled, then you most likely also believe in pre-millennialism (with a pre- or post-tribulation sub-belief) as you need the seven years of tribulation and a 1,000-year literal reign to give the prophecies a chance to be fulfilled.
Interpreting Current Events
Let’s take it back to the war between Israel and Hamas and let me ask you that same question again:
Are God’s plans and prophecies for Israel now fulfilled and accomplished through the Church?
If the answer is yes, then today's conflict is a humanitarian crisis and nothing more. Perhaps this is what Hamas gets for its crimes, or perhaps Israel is a colonizer and an instigator getting what it had coming. This conflict in the Middle East has no biblical mooring if the Lord has finished his work with this group. There's no biblical reason to be for or against them.
If, on the other hand, the Lord still has a plan and promise for the offspring of Abraham, then we see the events over there as very much relevant to the events prophesied in the Bible. If the Lord still has good things in store for these people, then we care very much about their nationhood and their survival. We see the 1948 re-establishment of their governance as the modern-day fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. We anticipate the fulfillment of other prophecies for the Jewish people in the future.
Let me know if this helps!
Glossary
Amillennialism: There is no millennial reign. Christ has ascended, and he will return after the current church age. Amillennialism sees the first coming of Christ as the inauguration of the kingdom and His return as the consummation of the kingdom.
Covenant theology: The belief that God deals the same with his chosen people throughout history.
Dispensationalism: The belief that God deals differently with his chosen people throughout history.
Eschatology: The study of End Time. A belief system regarding End Times.
Post-millennialism: Right now is the millennial reign of Christ. Christ has ascended, and he will return after this allegorical 1,000-year golden age of Christian prosperity and dominance.
Post-tribulation rapture: The Church is raptured to the atmosphere to greet the Lord in the sky and to escort him to the earth after the seven-year tribulation; therefore, the Church must endure the tribulation.
Pre-millennialism: Christ has ascended and will return before a literal 1,000-year reign. Pre-millennialists hold to either a pre-tribulation or post-tribulation rapture.
Pre-tribulation rapture: The Church is raptured to heaven before the seven-year tribulation, thereby escaping persecution and plagues.