Why do Christians support Israel? Truth is not what I say it is. Truth is not what you think it is. Truth is what the Torah says it is – there’s the Torah way and the wrong way. Genesis 12 and 3 says “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” We believe those blessings are very real and those judgments are very real.
Where are the nations that have persecuted the Jewish people? Where is Pharaoh and his army? Where are the Babylonians? Where are the Greeks? Where is the Ottoman Empire? Where are the Romans? Where is that goose-stepping lunatic Adolf Hitler and his Nazi hoards? All are footnotes in the bone yard of human history.
Where is Israel? Where are the Jewish people? They’re alive and well; they’re thriving; they’re prospering; they’re growing – even on a day of adversity they’re still going forward.
Where is Israel? Where are those who are scattered throughout the Diaspora? The mighty right hand of God gathered them from the nations of the world and Israel was miraculously born on May 15, 1948.
Israel lives!
Shout it from the housetop – Israel lives!
Let every Islamic terrorist group hear it – Israel lives!
Let every tinhorn dictator in the Middle East hear it – Israel lives!
Let it be heard in the halls of the UN – Israel lives!
Let it echo down the marble halls of the Presidential Palace in Iran – Israel lives!
Let it ring in the terrorist camps of Osama bin Laden – Israel lives!
Israel lives! Israel lives!
Jews have suffered programs and persecution; they have outlasted Pharaoh’s slavery and Hitler’s final solution, and I have no doubt that long after Hamas and Hizbullah have been buried in the bone yard of human history, long after the crisis with Iran has been resolved, the flag of Israel will still be flying over the ancient walls of the sacred city and Jerusalem and Israel will be the praise of all the earth.
Why do Christians support Israel? Because Christians deeply believe we owe a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people. You gave us the word of God; you gave us the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you gave us the Prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Amos, Josiah, Joel – not a Baptist in the bunch – and the first family of Christianity – Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Apostles.
The point is, if you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity there would be no Christianity. Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence, but Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism.
Therefore, I have been saying for 26 years over national television that it’s time for Christians to stop praising the dead Jews of the past while avoiding the Jews who live across the street. That’s anti-Semitism and anti-Semitis is sin and as sin it damns the soul.
As Christians tonight on this historic occasion, we ask God’s forgiveness and yours for every act of anti-Semitism in our past. The crusades, the Inquisition, Martin Luther’s “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies”; the Final Solution of Adolf Hitler carried out by baptized Christians in good standing with their church; the fact that the Roman Church was silent during these atrocities [because] they did not share our appreciation for the great contribution the Jewish people have given to humanity and to Christianity.
Tonight I humbly ask forgiveness of the Jewish people for every act of anti-Semitism and the deafening silence of Christianity in your greatest hour of need during the Holocaust. We cannot change the past but together we can shape the future. Think of our potential future together: 50,000,000 evangelicals joining in common cause with 5,000,000 Jewish people in America on behalf of Israel is a match made in heaven.
