A Letter on Israel, Calling, and Growing Anti-Semitism
Updated 2026-04-18. This letter has been substantially revised to reflect deeper study since the original September 2025 version. Much of the sharpened thinking, especially on Genesis 12's inclusive blessing, the Hosea marriage covenant, and the Revelation 12 dragon-fury frame, was worked out in conversation with a musician friend whose questions and scriptural prompts forced me to go deeper. She knows who she is. The original text is preserved in this file's Git history.
Dear Isaiah,
Thank you for asking how I'm grappling with the Israel issue, especially as my views have continued to evolve through Bible study.
When I first wrote you last September, I was in the early stages of this wrestle. Six months later my convictions are clearer, though I still hold them as "real time" rather than "final." I want to share where I've landed.
First Things First: How Does Any Christian Know What to Do?
Before Israel, Palestine, or any geopolitical question, we have to establish fundamentals. What is a Christian? To me it means fully accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, repenting of sins, and being baptized (both in the Holy Spirit and with water).
I want to emphasize the Holy Spirit baptism because this is where I believe 90% of Christianity goes wrong. Too many believers think they can operate with human wisdom alone, not understanding how critical it is to operate with wisdom that comes only from God.
This isn't wisdom to control world events or orchestrate global outcomes (the kind of power people imagine George Soros or Peter Thiel obsess over). This is wisdom to operate in your unique, one-of-one faith walk.
The Holy Spirit is your life guide. When He feels welcome, He nudges you along your journey, telling you where to be, what to say, and what opportunities to take for signs, wonders, and miracles. (I explore this in depth in my piece on Divine Sovereignty and Human Free Will.)
If you don't understand these truths about callings, unique walks, and building a direct relationship with the Holy Spirit, the rest of this letter won't make sense. Sit with this first.
Reading Genesis 12 Rightly
This is the biggest update from my earlier letter.
American churches lean heavily on Genesis 12:3:
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee..."
The standard reading makes this a blank check for the modern nation-state of Israel. Support the Israeli government, get blessed. Criticize it, get cursed. End of discussion.
But the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants, and Abraham had many descendants. Ishmael's line became the Arab nations. Isaac's line became the Jewish people. God explicitly told Abraham, "A father of many nations have I made thee" (Genesis 17:5).
Israel is one of those nations. Israel is not the only one.
The same goes for the land promise, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates (Genesis 15:18). It was made to Abraham and his seed. Those territories are currently occupied by Jews and Arabs, all of whom are descendants of Abraham. Read literally and inclusively, the promise is already fulfilled. There is no scriptural mandate for war over land, and no blank check for ethnic cleansing "to fulfill prophecy."
The specific calling that ran Isaac → Jacob → Judah → Jesus was different. That was about the seed of salvation, the bloodline through which Messiah would enter the world. That vocation was fulfilled in Christ. Once Jesus came, salvation went to every nation.
Zionism, as a theological position, often collapses these two things: the redemptive line of Jacob (fulfilled in Christ) and the territorial promise to Abraham (always inclusive of all his seed). Most Christians repeating "bless Israel, get blessed" have never pulled these two threads apart.
The Marriage Covenant: Why God Still Loves Israel
Acknowledging the above does not push me toward Replacement Theology. The Jewish people remain beloved of God. The reason runs deeper than most Christians realize.
God's relationship with Israel, throughout Scripture, is described in marital terms. "Thy Maker is thine husband" (Isaiah 54:5). The book of Hosea dramatizes it: God told the prophet to marry a prostitute and keep taking her back, so Hosea could feel, in his own flesh, what God feels toward Israel.
Now run the thought experiment. It would not be a covenant marriage if God said, "I only married you to birth me a son. Now that the son is here, I'm done with you." That is transactional, not covenantal. It treats the bride as a surrogate womb.
But that is what Replacement Theology implicitly teaches. Thanks for Messiah. The Church gets promoted to permanent bride. The original bride gets discarded.
God does not operate that way. Paul makes this explicit in Romans 11:28: Israel is "beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." The covenant persists even when the beloved is currently unfaithful to it. That is the character of God revealed through Hosea.
So: I reject both Replacement Theology and Zionist territorial maximalism. The Jewish people are beloved of God and remain so. They are also not entitled to land on a reading of Genesis 12 that ignores Abraham's other descendants.
Revelation 12: Why Antisemitism Runs on a Different Frequency
One more piece of Scripture shifted my understanding. Revelation 12:13–17:
"And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child... And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Read carefully. The dragon's fury reaches past the male child (Jesus) to the woman herself: the people through whom Messiah came. And from her, it extends to her remnant seed, those who keep God's commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus Christ.
That is why antisemitism has a different spiritual signature than other ethnic hatreds. It is dragon-fury directed at the vessel God chose for the Incarnation. Every pogrom, every expulsion, every gas chamber, every blood libel channels the same ancient rage.
If you cannot kill the child, you go after the mother. That is the strategy. For two thousand years, Christianity has been one of the dragon's most effective instruments for carrying it out while wearing the Son's own name.
This is why we must resist rising antisemitism in our moment, even as we maintain clear eyes about individual behavior. Ethnic Jewishness does not bestow righteousness. Jesus Himself called out a "synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9, 3:9) and told some, "Ye are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). Fruits of the Spirit are the evidence of relationship with God, regardless of bloodline.
The spiritual force targeting the Jewish people as a people, though, is demonic. Christians should resist being conscripted into it, whether through Nick-Fuentes-style conspiracy theorizing or through the subtler, older dragon-strategy of poisoning the Church's relationship with its own mother.
Two Dangerous Extremes in American Christianity
With all that in view, here are the two ditches I watch out for.
1. The Anti-Semitic Extreme
The "Nick Fuentes Christianity": a rabidly anti-Jewish movement obsessed with Jewish influence in everything. Yes, there are legitimate questions about concentration of power and abuse. The Epstein situation raised real concerns. But unless God is specifically calling you to be an investigative journalist or to lobby Congress about these issues, this focus becomes a distraction that descends into the same hateful spirit that animated the Crusaders, Inquisitors, and Nazis.
2. The Israel Idolatry Extreme
Christians who make the nation-state of Israel an idol. Unconditional political support for modern Israel gets equated with Christian faithfulness, and 82 million American evangelicals are expected to think identically about a modern government run by fallible humans.
Most of this is built on a misreading of Genesis 12, as above. Once you see that the Abrahamic blessing is wider than Israel and the land promise is inclusive of all his descendants, the idolatry loses its scriptural foundation.
I'll add a newer conviction: I keep every church at arm's length these days. My own pastor, who I respect, is one of the ones preaching faith rather than beating the nation-state drum. Many churches across Texas and beyond are idolizing nation-states at this point, discarding all nuance. That is either stupid or satanic. One of the two.
The narrow path is the nuanced truth: leading with love, rejecting both hatred of Jews and idolatry of the modern Israeli government.
The Missing Element: The Holy Spirit
Both ditches share a failure. They replace Holy Spirit guidance with institutional mandates. Church leaders get put on pedestals, and believers receive direction on "how to be a good Christian" from denominational authorities rather than from the Spirit Himself.
That is a grave mistake. The only thing that belongs on a pedestal is God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. If He is telling you to do something specific regarding Israel, Palestinians, or the conflict, make sure you are not confusing His voice for something else. Or worse, for the voice of a denomination, a pastor, or a cable news host.
My Concerns and Convictions
I have real concerns about how uncritical Christian support for a modern nation-state, primarily comprised of people who currently deny Christ, could empower actions that kill and displace Middle Eastern Christians. Palestinian Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Nigerian Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Their suffering deserves at least as much of our attention as Israeli suffering does.
That does not mean I endorse violence from any other side. It means I weigh Christian lives as equal regardless of which side of a geopolitical line they happen to live on.
The Real Issue: Your Calling
Here is the advice I keep giving myself.
Unless your specific calling involves this conflict (as a journalist breaking stories, a diplomat working for peace, a missionary serving in the region, or similar), an extensive daily focus on Israel-Palestine is likely distracting you from your actual calling.
For you, Isaiah, this may very well be part of your calling. That is something to discern carefully.
A Path Forward
My general counsel to everyone, regardless of how much they've thought about this:
If you believe in Christ, get baptized in the Holy Spirit as soon as possible.
What you should do regarding Israel, Palestine, and more importantly your life in general, becomes much clearer when you stop accepting one-size-fits-all institutional prescriptions and start listening to the Spirit's specific guidance for your unique calling.
The Holy Spirit gives different believers different roles. Some are called to pray for Israel. Others to serve Palestinian refugees. Some to be peacemakers. Some to focus entirely elsewhere. These are individual callings, and they are different from denominational mandates to support or oppose particular parties or nation-states.
Final Thoughts
Where I've landed as of this April update:
- The Jewish people remain beloved of God through an unbroken covenant (Romans 11, Hosea).
- Genesis 12's blessing extends to all Abraham's descendants, including the Arab nations.
- The land promise was always inclusive, and there is no scriptural mandate for territorial maximalism or ethnic cleansing.
- Antisemitism runs on a demonic frequency (Revelation 12) that Christians must resist.
- Idolatry of modern Israel is a different ditch on the same road. Christians must resist that too.
- The narrow path is the nuanced truth: leading with love, grounded in Scripture, directed by the Holy Spirit to your specific calling.
The question isn't "What should all Christians think about Israel?" The question is "What is God calling me, specifically, to do with my life?" For most of us, that answer has little to do with Middle Eastern politics and everything to do with the mission field right in front of us.
Let's keep talking.
Your brother in Christ,
Gary
Related: Christianity's Blood-Stained History With the Jews | The Conference of Influences | Divine Sovereignty and Human Free Will