Why US Evangelical Christians Support Israel?

Attitude to the war between Israel and Hamas in the United States

Recent polls on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict show that the largest group supporting Israel in the war against Hamas are American evangelicals. It is the largest, and probably the most influential religious group in America.

Do you think the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 is justified?

Does Hamas have the right to wage war against Israel?

The political weight of evangelicals

Evangelicals are considered one of the important factors in the political life of the United States. Their influence on Washington’s foreign policy has become the subject of intense debate after President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the arrest in Turkey of U.S. citizen Andrew Craig Bronson, accused of espionage and aiding terrorists.

White evangelicals make up a fifth of all registered voters and about one-third of all voters who belong to or lean toward the Republican Party. In addition, Evangelical Protestants play an important role in states such as Florida, where Republican and Democratic voters are divided almost equally.

Evangelicals make up an influential part of the Republican Party’s base and have a significant number in Congress. More than 100 members of the current Congress can generally be classified as evangelicals.

Evangelicals traditionally vote Republican. During the US presidential election in 2004, 78% of evangelicals voted for George W. Bush, in 2008 74% voted for John McCain, in 2012 78% of evangelicals supported Mitt Romney, in the last US presidential election in 2016 81% of evangelical church followers voted for Donald Trump.

Evangelicals believe that Trump was sent to them by God to fight secularism, the concept that government and other sources of law should exist separately from any religion and which white evangelicals consider destructive to America, “a Christian country conceived by God.” And in this regard, Trump is trying to meet their expectations: he is making efforts to abolish abortion rights and curtail LGBT rights. All this is done in the name of the “religious freedom” of conservative Christians, who perceive legalized abortion and same-sex marriage as an insult to their faith and infringement of their rights.

Why US Evangelical Christians Support Israel?

It’s all about the peculiarities of evangelical teaching. One of the directions of evangelical theology says that the return of Jews to the region starts the countdown of the seven-year armageddon, after which Jesus Christ will return.

“To the terrorists who have chosen this fight, hear this, what you do to Israel, god will do to you.” CUFI (Christians United for Israel), whose founder believes the presence of Jews in Israel is a precursor to Jesus Christ returning to Earth, wrote.

“While our theological perspectives on Israel and the Church may vary, we are unified in calling attacks against Jewish people especially troubling as they have been often targeted by their neighbors since God called them as His people in the days of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3),” the evangelical statement said.

“In keeping with Christian Just War tradition, we also affirm the legitimacy of Israel’s right to respond against those who have initiated these attacks as Romans 13 grants governments the power to bear the sword against those who commit such evil acts against innocent life.”

Broadly speaking, some Evangelicals believe that the return of Jewish people to Israel following the 1917 Balfour Declaration was key to the end of times, when God would purge sinners and Jesus Christ would return.

While there are many Evangelicals who adhere to the Israel-is-key-to-Jesus’-return theology, there are others who believe in a more transactional, less outlandish approach to supporting Israel.

The blessing theology is founded on the literal reading of Genesis, in which God told Abraham, the patriarch of Jewish people, that he would “bless those who bless you” and “curse those who curse you”.