INTERVIEW: CUFI Action Fund's Sandra Hagee Parker explains why supporting Israel is grounded in Christianity
CUFI Action's Sandra Hagee Parker tells us that we will "run out of pages" before she can answer why Scripture tells believers that supporting Israel is important.
The Washington Reporter has been following the debate on the right over U.S. support for Israel. Our editorial position is unequivocal: Israel is an ally, Israel’s enemies are our enemies, and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship is in our national security interest.
We decided to ask our friends at Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a deeply-respected group for Christians who believe God’s Abrahamic covenant endures, to explain the theological argument for why believers should back a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.
We appreciate CUFI and Sandra Hagee Parker’s thoughtful answers below.
Washington Reporter:
Can you tell us about your role and how you ended up at CUFI’s Action Fund?
Sandra Hagee Parker
CUFI began in 2006, and with its exponential growth, it became clear that we needed a full-time team in Washington, D.C. to ensure that our members and their issues were well represented year-round, at both the state and federal levels. We achieved that goal in 2015 when we opened the CUFI Action Fund.
Washington Reporter:
Let’s start with the Bible: what does Scripture tell us to do? Can you point to specific passages that make it clear that believers should support Israel?
Sandra Hagee Parker:
You will run out of page space before one can fully answer this question. From start to finish the Bible is a Zionist document.
First, there is the blessing of blessing Israel. Genesis 12:3 states, “I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you.” History has shown this is true. Where are the Pharaohs of Egypt, Haman, the Romans, the Ottomans, the Crusaders, the Inquisitors, Hitler, and now Hamas? They are in the dustbin of history where they belong. The Bible literally says that if you come against the nation of Israel, that you are offending God as if you are poking Him in the eye, writing “For this is what the Lord Almighty says…for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8—10)
Israel is the only nation created by God, the title deed of which is recorded in the Bible (Numbers 34, Joshua 11 and 13). David writes in the Psalm “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.” (122:6) Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred because Israel and her people have, since the time of the Pharaohs, been living under an existential threat. Kingdoms, Conquistadors, and Commandants have all tried to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth. This is because the existence of the modern state of Israel, and her people, are proof that God is who He says He is.
If one fails to recognize these truths as a matter of faith, what one cannot ignore as a matter of fact is that history has proven that what you do to Israel, God will do to you. Bible-believing Christians support the nation of Israel and her people not just to ensure Israel’s future, but our own.
Washington Reporter:
I’ve heard some Christians say that the covenant with Abraham was replaced in the New Testament with Christ’s death and resurrection. What’s your response to that? Are there verses in the New Testament that speak to God’s continuing special love for the Jewish people and Israel?
Sandra Hagee Parker:
You are referring to Replacement Theology, and those who believe in the same are misguided, at best, and heretical at worst. Replacement Theology has no basis in the Bible and is nothing more than a false doctrine used to legitimize the world’s oldest hatred. It is the same strategy used by the Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisitors, Martin Luther, the Nazis, the KKK, and now the far right. Scapegoating the Jews for the world’s problems is not new. From the famine in Egypt, the “murder” of Christ, to the post-WWI German economy, the “Jews” have been blamed for it all. And this blame game creates isolation, and delegitimization with the ultimate goal of the destruction of the Jewish people.
In the New Testament, Jesus Himself said “…for salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22) This means that without the Jewish people there would be no salvation for the gentiles. Consider what Paul writes in Romans 15:27 “For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their [the Jews] spiritual things, their [Gentiles] the duty is also to minister to them in material things.” Consider all that Judaism has given us. In addition to Jesus, we have the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and the Prophets. Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism, and the opposite is not true.
Consider the apostle Paul, a Jew, when answering the question as to whether God has replaced Israel with the gentiles, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people, whom He foreknew.” (Romans 11:1—2). The Bible is very clear that Jews have not been replaced by Christians in the economy of God. In short, if you do not believe in supporting the nation of Israel and her people, then you do not believe the Bible.
Washington Reporter:
How should believers understand the rebirth of the modern State of Israel through a Biblical lens? Do you see it as part of God’s plan?
Sandra Hagee Parker:
Again, the Bible could not be clearer. Isaiah 66:8 says that the modern state of Israel is a land that will be “born in a day” and a nation brought forth in a moment. The world saw scripture come to life when President Truman recognized the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948. If the modern state of Israel did not exist, then the Bible is a lie, and God is not real. If anyone suggests that the existence of the modern state of Israel is separate from the plan of God, they are both willfully blind and biblically illiterate.
Washington Reporter:
How should Christians respond to the rise of anti-Semitism on the “right”?
Sandra Hagee Parker:
Bible-believing Christians must remember that being a Conservative, or a MAGA supporter, or a member of the Republican Party, is not the same thing as being a Christian. Should any of the former contradict the latter; the latter prevails.
For instance, if lawmakers or pundits accuse the Jews of deicide, an excuse that has been used as a justification for the slaughter of Jewish people for centuries, believers must respond with Biblical truth. Jesus Himself says in the bible, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down for myself.” (John 10:18) Should anyone try to hold a people group accountable for the murder of Christ, this reveals nothing more than their own failure to believe in the sacrificial and substitutionary death of Jesus; ergo, not a Christian.
History has shown us that Burke’s writings hold true: the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men (and women) to do nothing in the face of such evil. Inaction is action and God will not hold us blameless for the failure to confront this abomination.
Washington Reporter:
We have a lot of readers who work on the Hill and the administration. How can our readers get involved with CUFI?
Sandra Hagee Parker:
For any readers inside the beltway, please sign up for our Action Updates at cufiactionfund.org. And to see the members of CUFI in action, please join us at our Washington, DC. Summit this July 5th-7th in Washington, D.C.