<\/p>\n
Does end-times theology drive evangelicals\u2019 support for Israel? New research seems to cast doubt on this oft-spouted assumption.<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, an organization seeking to serve and evangelize the Jewish people, recently reflected on new data that surprised him on this subject.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat surprised me is that nothing has changed since Oct. 7,\u201d Glaser said of evangelical support for the Jewish state. \u201cThere\u2019s just been so much bad press about Israel [but] \u2026 between 70-75% of what we call NAE evangelicals that really believe the essentials of the Gospel are very favorable towards Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Another interesting data point is the vast majority of Christians \u2014 87% \u2014 agree either strongly or somewhat that believers should support the Jewish people, regardless of Jews\u2019 opinions about Jesus being the Messiah.<\/p>\n Glaser said this is notable because the \u201cconversion of Israel\u201d is believed to be an eschatological prophecy \u2014 the belief that the \u201cJewish people will turn to Jesus in the last days.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a thought that the reason why Jewish people are important, the reason Israel is important, is because of their role in the last days,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so our researchers are not quite believers in Jesus; they\u2019re just academics with no skin in the game. They\u2019re very objective and very smart, and one of them said to me, \u2018Wow, I was wrong. The Christians are not as utilitarian as I thought, and that they genuinely believe that God has His hand on the Jewish people, chose the Jewish people, and that Christians have an obligation to be kind and support the Jewish people.’\u201d<\/p>\n Glaser, who has been a Christian for decades, said there\u2019s sometimes suspicion that there\u2019s a \u201csecret motive\u201d among Christians to convert the Jewish people \u2014 and that evangelical support is predicated upon this. But he believes the survey results dispel such a contention. And the report itself explains the true motivations beyond pro-Israel sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cOur data indicate that generalized eschatological urgency is insufficient to explain attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once covenantal theology, evangelical identity, and moral evaluations of Israel\u2019s use of force are considered,\u201d the report reads. \u201cInstead, support for Israel appears to be grounded in structured theological commitments and normative judgments rather than diffuse apocalyptic belief.\u200b\u201d<\/p>\n Glaser admitted he, like the researchers behind the data, was \u201cpleasantly surprised\u201d by the results and asked some important questions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real question then \u2026 is, \u2018What is the fundamental driving force for evangelicals\u2019 support who support Israel?\u201d Glaser continued. \u201cWhat is the driving force? Is it biblical? Is it social moral? Is it just war theory? \u2026 And I\u2019m happy to say that it\u2019s biblical.\u201d<\/p>\n Glaser said the majority of even young evangelicals believe that the Abrahamic covenant \u2014 God\u2019s promise of land and people \u2014 is still valid today. Watch for more on what he had to say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does end-times theology drive evangelicals\u2019 support for Israel? New research seems to cast doubt on this oft-spouted assumption. Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d Dr. Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, an organization seeking to serve and evangelize the Jewish people, recently reflected on new data that surprised him on this subject. \u201cWhat surprised<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[168,1690,3839,3840],"class_list":{"0":"post-27718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jesus","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-times","10":"tag-totally","11":"tag-wrong"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}