The Israel Dilemma

Why Israel isn’t prophecy’s centerpiece

The Israel of the Bible isn’t the same as the Israel on today’s map. God’s covenant people weren’t defined by borders or armies. They were defined by His promises and His presence. Confusing the two has created one of the biggest distortions in the modern church.

Where the Confusion Began

Paul uses the word dispensation in Ephesians 1:10 and Colossians 1:25. It means God’s stewardship, His way of carrying out His plan. The Reformers used the same word, but for them it was simple: the one covenant of grace unfolding through history. First through the patriarchs, then under Moses, and finally in the gospel where Christ fulfills it all. Different administrations, but one covenant of grace.

In the 1800s a man named John Nelson Darby changed the meaning. In the 1830s he turned it into a system. He divided history into seven eras, split Israel and the church into two different peoples, and treated prophecy like a calendar of world events. From there came the pre-tribulation rapture. If Israel’s story was on pause, the church had to be removed before God could hit play again.

Darby wasn’t a politician. He was a man with a broken hermeneutic. But his system spread like wildfire when C. I. Scofield printed it into the margins of the Bible in 1909. Suddenly Darby’s framework looked like Scripture itself. By the time Israel became a state in 1948, a generation of Christians had already been primed to see it as fulfilled prophecy. Bad interpretation laid the tracks and politics rode the train. Governments saw the benefit of Christians buying into this idea, and they certainly did.

From Theology to Christian Zionism

This is where Christian Zionism took off. Dispensationalism had already built the system. Scofield had already printed it into the Bible. So when the state of Israel was founded in 1948, it was the perfect storm. It just had to be prophecy.

During the Cold War, America wanted a strong ally in the Middle East. Israel fit that role. But for dispensationalists, it wasn’t just political strategy. It was prophecy unfolding before their eyes. Every headline became a sign of the end. Every war was another line on God’s calendar.

By the 70s and 80s, it went mainstream. Jerry Falwell rallied Christians under the banner of “support Israel.” Pat Robertson turned it into a regular theme on television. Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth sold millions of copies and convinced a generation that Israel was the prophetic centerpiece of God’s plan. Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you” was turned from a covenant promise in Christ into a campaign slogan.

By the 2000s, Christian Zionism was baked into American evangelical identity. Every border conflict, every military strike, every peace treaty was treated as a direct move of God. Churches waved Israeli flags in worship (I remember this distinctly growing up in a charismatic/ dispensational church). Politicians caught on quickly: tie policy to God’s blessing, and people won’t just support it. They will bow to it.

The danger is obvious. Faith got tangled up in foreign policy. Many Christians started tying their spiritual identity to the survival of the modern nation-state of Israel. Prophecy blurred into politics and politics blurred into prophecy. The gospel was drowned out by Christian Zionism.

The Problem With “Bless Israel” Theology

Genesis 12:3 is always at the center: “I will bless those who bless you.” But God wasn’t speaking to a modern government. He was speaking to Abraham.

So who does the “you” point to? Not a modern state, but Abraham himself. His offspring. And Paul, a former Pharisee who knew the Torah inside and out, will not let us stop there. In Galatians 3:16 he says the true offspring is Christ. Through Him the blessing now flows to all nations.

Genesis 12:3 is not a foreign policy verse. It is a gospel promise. If you skip Christ, you have missed the point. When teachers jump from Abraham straight to modern Israel, they bypass Christ. They turn covenant promises into a political program. That is Christian Zionism, not faithfulness.

But What About the 70th Week of Daniel?

Daniel 9 gets used as the backbone of dispensational charts. They will tell you the first 69 weeks lead to Christ, then the clock just stops. The church age is a parenthesis. You have probably seen the guy on YouTube with the dry erase board charting this out. One day, they say, God will restart the countdown for a seven-year tribulation focused on Israel.

But the text never says the clock stops. The 70 weeks are a single unit. And look at what God promises to do in them: finish transgression, end sin, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness. Sound familiar? That is Christ. That is the cross. That was not postponed. It was finished.

Even the cutting off of the anointed one points to His death. The destruction of Jerusalem fits AD 70. Daniel’s prophecy is not a waiting room for another countdown. It is covenant history fulfilled in Jesus.

But What About Jacob’s Trouble?

Jeremiah 30:7 gets quoted as the smoking gun for a future tribulation in Israel: “It is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it.”

But Jeremiah is speaking of the Babylonian exile. A time of distress, yes, but also a time of deliverance. God promises to break the grip of the oppressors. He promises to raise up David their king as fulfilled in Christ, the true Son of David. He promises to restore His people in covenant fellowship. Grace far beyond what they deserved after breaking the covenant.

Jacob’s Trouble was never code for a seven-year tribulation. It pointed forward to Christ who brings final salvation.

The Gospel Answer

Here is the truth: Israel and Palestine both need the same thing. Christ. Both stand guilty before God. Both need the gospel.

And in Christ, the dividing wall has already come down. Jew and Gentile are made into one new humanity. One covenant family. Not through bloodlines. Not through borders. Through the cross.

God’s kingdom does not rise or fall with governments. It does not hinge on armies or political deals. The hope of Jew and Gentile alike is not dirt in the Middle East. It is a risen Savior. In Him, every promise finds its yes and amen.

So let us not confuse earthly kingdoms with God’s kingdom. Let us grieve the violence on every side. Let us preach Christ where the world preaches power. And let us remember that the blessing promised to Abraham is already here in Jesus. We are not waiting on another week, another war, or another treaty.