Evangelicals Divided Over Significance of Israel’s Election

For American evangelicals who profess a theology that sees Israel’s existence as part of biblical prophecy, last week’s election in the Jewish state produced a mixed blessing.

Many evangelical Christians who interpret the Bible literally tend to view the election of hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister as part of God’s plan for the Second Coming of Jesus.

But at the same time, some of these evangelicals fear that Christian endeavors in Israel--from missionary and charitable activities to archeological digs--may face harder times because of the strong gains that Orthodox Jewish political parties made in the election.

“I don’t think the Orthodox care too much for Christian organizations,” said Larry Ehrlich, North American director of Bridges for Peace, a Tulsa, Okla.-based evangelical group that does charitable work in Israel.

Evangelical beliefs include an end-time theological scenario in which the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is a prelude to the final battle between the forces of good and evil at Armageddon--the Greek name for a valley in northern Israel--and Jesus’ return to Earth.

What happens next varies according to interpretations of the biblical Book of Revelation. Some believe that at this point the world will end; others believe a 1,000-year period of peace will ensue.

Modern Israel’s survival is crucial, according to end-times theology, for biblical prophecy to be fulfilled.

Many evangelicals who subscribe fully to this theology believe that the land-for-peace policy followed by defeated Prime Minister Shimon Peres and his predecessor, the late Yitzhak Rabin, weakened Israel militarily and threatened its long-term survival.

However, not all evangelical Christians--who are estimated by various surveys to account for 14% to 46% of the U.S. population of more than 250 million--subscribe to this belief literally. Some evangelicals sympathize with the Palestinians’ desire to have their own state and are highly critical of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Many others “are less studied in the Bible, and if they think of Israel at all, they do not think of it in a theological sense but only see it in modern political terms,” said Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

But for evangelicals such as Ed McAteer, the Memphis, Tenn.-based head of the Religious Roundtable, Netanyahu’s narrow victory was “a moment of absolute exhilaration.”

McAteer, who organizes an annual Christian prayer breakfast in Israel, has no doubt that Netanyahu’s election victory fits into the evangelical end-time scenario. McAteer said Netanyahu’s campaign promise not to abandon Jewish settlements on the West Bank will strengthen Israel’s hold over land “that Scripture lets us know belongs to Abraham and his seed--the Jews.”

Evangelist Pat Robertson said he was delighted at Netanyahu’s victory. “He wants defensible borders. He wants the integrity of Israel,” the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network said in a statement Monday.

Robertson, who has called Peres’ land-for-peace policy “national suicide,” did not address Netanyahu’s victory in direct theological terms. However, Robertson often speaks of Israel’s importance to prophecy.

Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in 1967, he told Charisma magazine last year, “was a fulfillment of the prophecy that said the times of the Gentiles would be over” when the end time arrives.

Still, some evangelicals--including strong believers in Israel’s importance to biblical prophecy--cautioned against reading too much into Netanyahu’s win.

John F. Walvoord, chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary, said the importance of Netanyahu’s election to prophecy “depends upon how close we are to the end-time”--something on which individual believers disagree.

There is, however, general agreement among evangelical leaders that the added strength Israel’s Orthodox religious parties gained in the voting could spell trouble for American evangelical activities in Israel.

Jim Sibley, who is leaving Israel this month after leading Southern Baptist missionary efforts there for 14 years, said he feared that increased Orthodox power might make it harder for foreign evangelicals to get visas to work in Israel.

Ehrlich, the Bridges for Peace representative, said the added Orthodox influence is bound “to make the work harder” in Israel in “lots of little and subtle ways.”

Archeological excavations in Israel are another matter of concern to evangelicals, who have a strong interest in exploring biblical sites to learn all they can about events and places described in the Bible.

Often, however, such digs disturb ancient Jewish cemeteries. Because Jewish law prohibits disturbing the dead, Israeli Orthodox Jews are continually seeking to stop archeological explorations.

Patterson, a prominent Southern Baptist conservative, said he could foresee Orthodox political power being used to pressure the Israeli government into curtailing the number of archeological digs that are allowed.