Many American Christians suffer from a kind of biblical amnesia that leads them to identify the state of modern Israel as the chosen people of God of which the Bible speaks. People in lofty political circles on both sides of the aisle make this identification in an absolute way, so that it is the bound Christian duty of the United States as a nation to support the state of Israel. If we support the modern state of Israel, such people claim that the United States will be heirs to the promise of God to Abram: "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gn 12:3). While Israel as a nation may deserve our support as a representative democracy, this unabashed Zionism is bad politics and worse theology.

I am not arguing against supporting Israel, I am simply denying that there is a theological basis for such support. Politically, the affairs of nations must be governed by the Realpolitik of national self-interest. Politicians should arrange foreign relations to the best benefit of the people who elected them to office. This is the only rational basis for international relations. Support for the modern nation of Israel may be in our best interests, but we need to continue to make that case, or if the theological consensus dissolves for that support we may find it difficult to martial support for Israel on a Realpolitik, rational basis.

What is the case against supporting Israel as a theological necessity?  The case is driven by the Bible's teaching on law and gospel. How do sinners come into the church? They come into God's community, the church, by grace through faith in the merit of Christ, the only Savior from sin. "His name is the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Those who are Christians are Christians because God has called them by the holy gospel. He does not call them on the basis of their own merits, least of all merits tied to an earthly birth. God is not interested in your pedigree according to the flesh. The apostle Paul is adamant that there is neither Jew nor Greek and that God is no respecter of persons. In fact, He claims that Peter erred when he drew away from Gentile believers under pressure from the Judaizers and He chided Peter saying, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified" (Gal 2:15-16). Justification before God is through faith in Christ so that it is equally by grace, whether to the Jew or to the Gentile. Those who are saved are saved by the grace of Christ whom believers confess as the true Messiah. So for Paul, genetics is not the basis for salvation and therefore membership in the church. There is nothing meritorious about being in the physical lineage of Abraham if you reject the Lordship of Jesus, the King of the church and her true Messiah.