Among the many overlooked passages in the New Testament about God’s plans for Israel is this statement by the Jewish apostle Paul:

My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

Acts 26:4-8

Paul was speaking to the Jewish King Herod Agrippa II and the Roman Procurator Porcius Festus of Judea. His remark about resurrection obviously referred to the core Christian message of God conquering sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus. Why, however, did he mention the promise God made to Israel’s Patriarchs – the promise Israel’s twelve tribes hoped to attain? Was Paul’s entire message about spiritual salvation for individuals, or was there something more to it that constituted a threat to the existing political, religious, and economic order of the Roman Empire and its Jewish provinces?

Yes, there was, and is, a threat to the existing world order. It’s the same threat that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon saw in his dream of the giant statue representing the kingdoms of the earth that was destroyed by a rock cut without hands representing the eternal Kingdom of God (Daniel 2). The threat has persisted through the ages, spawning pogroms, expulsions, massacres, persecutions, and all manner of oppression against the people who embody that threat.

We would be right to discuss the Christian martyrs who have died at the hands of tyrants simply because they proclaim with their lives the message that it would be better if we could be nice to one another because that’s what our Creator intended all along. We would also be right to discuss the Jewish martyrs who have died at the hands of those same tyrants because they lived out the same message.

This gets to Paul’s defense before King Agrippa. He was speaking not only of a spiritual truth, but a very real political truth: the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming to earth, and all the earthly kingdoms would fall before it. This godly order would manifest as the covenant nation of Israel. That is the hope of Israel’s twelve tribes, and it is directly connected to the resurrection.

Christians know that God raised Jesus from the dead as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [died]” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). What we miss is that Jesus is the first not only among individuals, but of God’s covenant nation. Israel also died and was buried, both the northern kingdom destroyed by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom of Judah conquered by the Babylonians and utterly destroyed by the Romans. Yet the scattered remnants of Israel kept alive the promise of restoration and final redemption wherever they went. 

That’s the testimony of the Jewish people – a people who would not die no matter what the combined powers of the world threw at them. They survived because of the hope that God would restore them one day and bring about the blessed time of world peace we all hope to see. Why, then, should we be surprised that God would raise his covenant nation from the dead?

The only thing God promises to do with all his heart and soul is to restore Israel to the ancestral homeland he had given them, where he will “rejoice in doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:36-41). The only nation God promises never to destroy completely is Israel, even though he will make an end of all other nations (Jeremiah 46:27-28). Moreover, God promises once again to choose Zion, meaning the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel, explaining that he is zealous over Zion (Zechariah 1:13-17). John the Revelator writes that Zion is where the saints of God will stand with the Lamb (Messiah) to sing the praises of God as the prophesied destruction of Babylon occurs and the dream of Nebuchadnezzar comes to pass (Revelation 14:1-13).

We could dismiss this as symbolic imagery if it weren’t for Paul and his fellow apostles. James, for instance, quotes from Amos 9 about Israel’s restoration when discussing what to do about the Gentiles coming to believe in Jesus as Messiah (Acts 15:12-21, Amos 9:11-12). Peter quotes Moses to connect Jesus’ followers with Israel, God’s holy nation of priests (1 Peter 2:9-10, referring to Exodus 19:5-6). Peter also references Hosea, who prophesied that Israel would be rejected by God and become “not my people,” but would in time again be called his people and receive his mercy (Hosea 1:9-10, 2:23). 

One might be excused for thinking these apostolic pronouncements meant the church had replaced the Jewish people and become the true Israel. Or at least one might be excused before 1948, when a people who had not been a people and a dead nation of scattered dry bones returned to life just as God promised. If the church had replaced the Jews, why did this series of miracles happen? Why does this small Jewish state remain in existence if God is finished with them? 

And why does the world, including many Christians, hate them?

Paul instructed Gentile followers of Jesus that they were grafted into the olive tree of Israel, adopted into the covenant of God, and made part of the commonwealth of Israel (Romans 11:11-32; Ephesians 2:8-13) alongside the Jews. If the Jewish people were erased from God’s plans, there would be nothing to be grafted into, and God would be starting over after having reneged on his promises. That’s why Paul warns us Gentiles not to be arrogant toward the natural branches, and reminds us that the gifts and callings of God (in this case, to the Jewish people) are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

We from the nations were taken into this covenant of redemption to join with our Jewish brethren in bringing about the promised restoration of God’s covenant nation. That’s why the prophets speak of us bringing them home to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel), tending their vineyards and flocks, and encouraging them to go up to Zion to seek the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 49:22-23, 61:5-7; Zechariah 8:20-23).

There are those who buy into the anti-Jewish propaganda and believe that God’s covenant people are oppressing the Arab peoples and non-Jews who live among them. They have a mistaken understanding that there exists a distinct people called Palestinians, not realizing that Palestine was an invention of the Roman Caesar Hadrian after he thrust the Jewish people from their homeland of Judea. They also don’t realize that Jews were called Palestinians until Israel’s independence in 1948, and that returning Jews have always sought to live at peace with their Arab neighbors. It’s not the fault of the Jews that there is no “Palestinian” Arab state, but the fault of the Arabs who refused to accept states offered to them in 1937, 1947, 1994, 2000, and 2020. Perhaps it’s not the Jews who are the obstacles to peace, and perhaps the real issue isn’t Palestinian national self-determination. Maybe it’s simply that people are uncomfortable with the existence of a Jewish state because it means there is a God of Israel who is coming through on his promises to the Jewish people.

I could address all of these points in detail, but I already have in my book, Christian Zionism 101: Ten Reasons Christians Should Support Israel and the Jewish People. Those who want to go beyond the sound bites and propaganda should read it. The world doesn’t need more uninformed masses spouting anti-Jewish slogans. What we need are sincere Christians who want to know what the Bible says about Israel and judge for themselves whether the modern Jewish State has anything to do with the ancient covenant nation God established to bring redemption to the world.

Albert J. McCarn is the author of Christian Zionism 101: Ten Reasons Christians Should Support Israel and the Jewish People. He retired from the US Army in 2012 and since then has worked with Ten From the Nations and other ministries that bring Christians and Jews together to walk out the promises of Israel’s complete restoration.