In a recent viral interview, Sen. Ted Cruz told Tucker Carlson that American Christians should support Israel because, in his words, “biblically, we are commanded to support Israel.” He cited the well-known promise from Genesis 12:3—although he changed it to say “Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed”—to argue that defending Israel is not just political but spiritual.
But Carlson wasn’t buying it. “Is the nation God’s referring to in Genesis the same country run by Benjamin Netanyahu?” Carlson asked skeptically.
Cruz seemed surprised by his question, but that question has been the center of tension for many Christian theologians over the years. For decades, a large portion of the American church has viewed modern Israel through the lens of biblical prophecy. That belief has shaped sermons, voter guides and foreign policy platforms.
But a growing number of Christians—including many who care deeply about the people of Israel—are questioning whether the modern, secular state of Israel should still be seen as the fulfillment of God’s promises in Scripture.
So where did this idea come from and does it hold up?
The roots of American Christian Zionism
The belief that Christians are obligated to support Israel is deeply rooted in 20th-century evangelical theology. Many American Christians embraced Zionism—the political movement to establish a Jewish state in the historical land of Israel—because of both theological convictions and historical guilt.
“Broadly, I think American Christians insist on pro-Israel policy because they’re heirs of a history of enthusiasm for Zionism,” said Dr. Jon Weatherly, a New Testament scholar. “That enthusiasm was probably grounded partly in the desire to make amends for the terrible history of antisemitism in Europe, often supported and sometimes instigated by the church, and culminating horribly in the Holocaust.”
For others, support for modern Israel is rooted in end-times prophecy. Some Christians believe the return of Jewish people to the Holy Land would trigger spiritual revival in the Middle East and eventually usher in the return of Christ. Many view the founding of Israel in 1948 not as a political development but a prophetic one.
This belief system, often tied to dispensational theology, interprets Israel’s existence as a key marker in God’s plan for the last days. Verses like Genesis 12:3 are applied to modern nations, and some Christians believe America’s well-being depends on its treatment of Israel.
“It is a misappropriation of the first half of God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3,” Weatherly said. “Some will even say God gives eternal salvation to individuals on the basis of their faith in Christ, but he grants a blessing to whole nations according to their treatment of Israel.”
Others go further, interpreting Jesus’ parable about the judgment of nations in Matthew 25 as proof that national blessings are tied to national policies toward Israel. But according to Weatherly, this interpretation is “hard to square with the context of these passages and with a God who doesn’t treat people differently according to their ethnic identity.”
The Israel of Scripture vs. the modern state
The biblical nation of Israel was a theocracy—a people group set apart under the Law of Moses to reflect God’s holiness to the world. That covenant was spiritual and communal, not geographic or political in the way we understand nations today.
Modern Israel is a secular democracy, formed after World War II as a homeland for Jewish people. Its government is not based on Mosaic law, and its population includes Jewish citizens, Muslims, Christians and other groups.
While the modern state bears the same name as the ancient one, they are not the same entity.
“The true children of Abraham and heirs of Abraham’s promise are thus those who belong to God by faith in Jesus regardless of tribal identity or any other differentiating characteristic,” Weatherly said, citing Galatians 3:26–29.
In other words, the fulfillment of God’s promises in Genesis was never about establishing a permanent political nation—it was about blessing all nations through Christ. That’s a shift many New Testament writers, especially Paul, emphasize repeatedly.
“There are no other bits to be fulfilled, side deals for land or regional hegemony for a particular tribe,” Weatherly said. “All God’s promises to Israel have reached fulfillment in Christ.”
So what about Genesis 12:3?
It’s a verse many Christians know by heart. But taken out of context—as Cruz did when speaking to Carlosn—it’s often misused.
Genesis 12 marks the moment when God calls Abraham to leave his homeland and promises to bless him—and through him, all nations. But the point of that covenant wasn’t to elevate one ethnic group above others. It was to begin the story of redemption for a broken world.
“Genesis told a different story: humanity is one big, dysfunctional family, created by the one true God, and across the board in rebellion against him,” Weatherly said. “So what is God going to do with these ‘nations’ whose confused conflict is the curse of their prideful rebellion? He’s going to bless them. That’s Genesis 12. It’s crazy. Thank God it’s crazy.”
That blessing, Weatherly explained, comes not through geopolitical allegiance but through Jesus—the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.
“Eventually one is born in Israel who himself epitomizes his nation’s insignificance and brings the promised blessing as Abraham’s true ‘seed.’ That’s Jesus, of course,” he said.
What does this mean for how Christians view Israel today?
It’s possible to care deeply about the Jewish people, to acknowledge the horror of the Holocaust and to support a peaceful future for Israel—without claiming that modern Israel has a divine right to the land.
“It may have been a reasonable idea to create a new Jewish state of Israel after the Holocaust,” Weatherly said. “It may be a decent idea to support that modern nation diplomatically and militarily. We just shouldn’t confuse those with fulfillment of God’s plan in the Bible.”
Weatherly cautions against both extremes—discarding Israel as irrelevant or elevating it beyond its role in redemptive history.
“The covenant is permanently binding,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean Israel has a permanent right to the land it was given. That mistakes what the covenant was about. It’s about blessing all through the one true Israelite.”
The Gospel calls believers to care for all people—not because of their nationality but because every person is made in the image of God. That includes Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, Christians and skeptics.
As political debates over Israel continue to unfold, Carlson’s pushback—whether you agree with it or not—has reignited a conversation the church needs to have. Not about loyalty to nations but about how we read the Bible and what it really means to be blessed.
To see the full exchange between Cruz and Carlson, watch the video below.
