Grafted In

 

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

—Galatians 3:26-27

“I don’t understand why you Evangelicals are so pro-Israel? Don’t you see how awful it is for the Palestinians who have lost their homeland?”

This great mystery that seems to confound many, including the majority of the mainline Protestant denominations and most left-leaning non-Evangelicals, stems from an ignorance of both history and Scripture.

To understand our position, one must carefully study the events surrounding Israel becoming an independent nation back after World War II.

In the Old Testament times, God gave His chosen people far more of the land they have now re-occupied. The land is theirs.

Furthermore, the Israelites were willing to live peacefully with the Palestinians. It was the Palestinians who would not sign the treaty and, instead, chose to start a war back in 1947 and 1948.

In addition to all of that, we who follow Christ have been grafted into the people of Israel and become brothers and sisters with God’s chosen people.

(This is a complicated theological issue that would take far more pages to fully explore. But let me make a more simplistic attempt to explain.)

There are many passages in the New Testament that declare this truth. For example, here’s Galatians 3:26-29:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Of course, we must look on all people through God’s eyes of love and join with God in acknowledging that He has chosen some people from every tribe and nation to belong to Himself.

We must pray for peace in the Middle East. We must show compassion for those Palestinians who have become children of God through Christ. We must recognize that the government of Israel may not have always made the right decision in every situation.

But, when it comes to choosing to whom our first loyalty belongs, we must choose those to whom we have been joined by God.

Many will strongly disagree with what I have written. Nevertheless, when someone asks me why do so many Evangelicals show favor to Israel, I have now explained why.

But, above all else, we must not let any political matter ever interfere with our most important role. We are, first and foremost, Christ’s ambassadors. We must show forth His love to all people. Even people who hold vastly different political views than we do.

 

_{Copyright © 2015 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

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