Hatred of Israel is on the Rise

“The Jews are a despised people. Today it’s a popular thing to hate Israel.” I wrote that in 2020 in my book, What the Bible Says about Israel. Five years later it is still true, and probably even more true. Hatred of Jews is on the rise. But anti-Semitism is not a modern or new thing. That sad statement was true in 1944, and 1492, and 69 AD, and 586 BC, and 722 BC, and even in 1450 BC. The nations of the world have despised Israel since God brought them into existence 3,800 years ago and that hatred will continue and grow until Christ returns at the end of the age. That is God’s decree as revealed in the Bible. What the Bible says, God says.

The newest wave of popular Jew haters is now coming from those claiming to be on the “political right.” Historically, overt hatred of Israel was spewed from the “left,” or Democrats, and those sympathetic to Islam. Modern popular propagators of anti-Israel sentiments and slurs have been coming from political figures such as Barak Obama, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (from Michigan), Rep. Ilhan Omar (from Minnesota), and many others of their ilk. The United Nations has been overtly anti-Israel for decades, with just a few of the 193 countries being the exception, such as the United States. But now more and more so-called conservatives, political and religious, are joining the left in the growing anti-Semitic movement.

I had Dr. Michael Rydelnik as a guest in my Old Testament seminary class recently (November, 2025). He is the long-time professor of Jewish Studies and Bible Exposition at Moody Bible Institute. He is a Jewish Christian and a world-renowned expert on matters related to Israel, both modern and ancient Israel. His parents escaped Hitler’s holocaust in 1943. He shared that he was part of a recent Bible conference highlighting the themes of prophecy and Israel. The conference was advertised on various online sources and Dr. Rydelnik says he was inundated in those online sources with “vicious, vitriolic and hateful comments” from “professing Christians” who hated dispensationalism and Israel with a passion. He said he had never seen anything like it, the Jewish hatred was so palpable. These professing Christians claimed that Jews are “Christ-haters” and Christians have no business supporting Israel in any manner.

Ironically, this new, American wave of Christian anti-Semites, who claim to be a part of the political right, identify their movement with the tagline, “Christ is King!” It sounds good, doesn’t it? But it’s a deceptive ploy, and just the latest example of a religious cabal hijacking and commandeering biblical terms and phraseology for nefarious purposes. They seem to forget the obvious: Jesus, all the Apostles, the entire Christian church for the first five years of its existence, and all the Old Testament prophets were all Jews belonging to the nation of Israel. God loves Israel. God is called, “the God of Israel” (Exod 5:1), and that is His name “forever” (Exod 3:15). The reality is these “conservatives” sound more like Hitler than those who know and believe the Bible. Hitler stigmatized the Jews by calling them “Christ-haters.”

Dr. Rydelnik’s testimony serves as a clarion call for all Bible-believing Christians to be aware of the newest form of antisemitism that has now infiltrated Evangelicalism and politics on the right among so-called conservatives. A good example is from the discussion (debate) this year (on June 18) between political commentator, Tucker Carlson, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz and Carlson are both on the political right and claim to be Christians–Cruz a Baptist, and Carlson a Catholic. They are both typically insightful on matters of public policy, law, and economics. But they were woefully and embarrassingly out of their lane when they began to debate Israel and the Bible. To his credit, Senator Cruz was trying to defend Israel using the Bible. Tucker Carlson was attacking the current nation of Israel. They argued over the meaning and application of the famous Bible verse that says God will “bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you,” a promise God gave to Abram about the nation of Israel. They both grossly missed the mark when they tried to pontificate on this topic. Cruz could not tell Tucker where that verse was in the Bible, ignorance on Cruz’s part for which Carlson humiliated him. Then Carlson said the promise is in “Genesis 16,” which is dead wrong. They were arguing about the Bible, while knowing little about the Bible. This is a common problem among many and it is dangerous. Informed Christians know that the Abrahamic Covenant was first given by God to Abram in Genesis 12 and then reaffirmed in Genesis 15 and 17 and many other places.

There is only one source to get the truth about Israel—its past, present, and future—and that is from Scripture. Only God knows the truth about all things related to Israel, including its destiny as a nation. The whole Bible is about Israel, from Genesis to Revelation. When someone rejects what the Bible says about Israel in the Bible, then that person is rejecting Scripture and rejecting God. To reject God’s truth declared in Scripture is dangerous. Instead of getting your information from ignorant podcasters who have a self-serving agenda (such as the popular anti-Semite, Nick Fuentes), or from secular, Marxist, and ideologically driven news sites (like CNN and others), consult your Bible and reliable Bible teachers (like John MacArthur, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Bill Barrick, Darrell Bock, Walt Kaiser, Randal Price and many others). God said the “church” is the guardian of the truth (1 Tim 3:15), not ChatGPT, or AI, or uninformed news anchors, or politicians, or TIME Magazine, or Hollywood “stars,” or famous rock stars, or loud sportscasters, or the ladies on The View, Joe Rogan, or the atheist Bill Maher, or Instagram, or the countless online news outlets.

To help cut through the fog of ignorance and confusion so prevalent in our age, consider the following basic truths about Israel that God has spoken in His Word, the Bible, and use them to inform your worldview which will help you discern truth from error:

1. God created Israel. “this is what the LORD says–He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine’” (Isa 43:1).
2. God gave an everlasting covenant to Abram, the father of Israel.“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed’” (Gen 12:1-3).
3. God promised the Messiah would descend from Abram, as a Jew, and He would bless the world as the Savior. “in you [Abram] all the families of the earth will be blessed [by the coming Messiah]” (Gen 12:3).
4.  God adopted and elected Israel as His special nation. “And who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his own people” (2 Sam 7:23) “the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deut 7:6).
5. God did not choose Israel to be His special nation because of their goodness, or their obedience, or because they deserved it, but solely because of His sovereign choice and mercy.“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers” (Deut 7:7-8).
6. During most of Old Testament history, Israel disobeyed God and incurred His wrath and chastisement. “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; for the Lord speaks,‘Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand’. Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
   they have turned away from Him” (Isa 1:1-4; Zeph 3:1-2).
7. There has always been a minority of Jews who believed and obeyed, starting in the days of Moses (1450 BC) to the time of Christ, and God called them the faithful Jewish “remnant.” “The LORD said to Elijah…I reserve 7,000 in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:15, 18; cf. Zeph 3:13); “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant [of believing Jews] according to God’s gracious choice” (Rom 11:5).
8. God warned Israel from their beginning that if they disobeyed then He would scatter them all over the world among the nations where they would always be persecuted and they would be a hated minority. “If you do not obey Me…then I will scatter you among the nations” (Lev 26:14, 33). God scattered Israel around the world, displacing them from the Promised Land, three times: in 722 BC, 586 BC, and in AD 70. The Jews are still scattered among the nations today, living in over 100 or the 193 nations of the world, including several thousand who live in the Islamic regime of Iran.
9. God reaffirmed His eternal commitment to Israel in the 6^th century BC with the New Covenant, promising He would never abandon them despite their centuries of rebellion.“Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun by day and the ordinances of the moon and stars by night…If these ordinances depart from Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever” (Jer 31:35-36).
10. God protects and preserves the Jews despite widespread political attempts to exterminate them. (Esther 1-10)  
11. God promised that He would eventually regather Israel from all the nations of the world and bring them back to the promised Land to be His redeemed nation. He said that will happen at the end of the age, “in the latter days.” “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them” (Deut 4:29-31).
12.  God said Christians should have compassion for and pray for the salvation of unbelieving Israel. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Rom 10:1)
13. God warned Gentile Christians not to be judgmental, condescending, or prejudicial toward unbelieving Israel, otherwise He will deal severely with such ignorant arrogance. “Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches (unbelieving Jews], He may not spare you [Gentile professing Christians] either” (Rom 11:20-21).
14. National Israel’s collective rejection of Christ is only partial and temporary. God is using their unbelief during the Church age to save Gentiles and to make Israel jealous. “Do not be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom 11:25).
15. All the nations in the Middle East will attack Israel at the end of the age in an attempt to annihilate the Jews. “Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled” (Zech 14:12).
16. Jesus will defend and rescue Israel at His Second Coming. “The LORD will go forth and fight against those nations” (Zech 14:3).
17. God is going to save Israel at the end of the age when He gathers them back to the Promised Land. “And so all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:26).
18. Redeemed Israel will have a major role alongside Christ in the Millennium. “And Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’” (Matt 19:28).

God created and elected Israel to be His special nation forever (Gen 17:7). This is true despite their rebellion all throughout Old Testament history and during the Church age. God’s election is not dependent upon human behavior. God has an ultimate and perfect plan for the ages and Israel is a part of it. Until that plan comes to fruition at the return of Christ, Christians need to evangelize unsaved Jews just as they evangelize all unbelievers, pray for the salvation of Israel, pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6), and refrain from slandering Israel which gives fodder to modern-day anti-Semites. God never revoked His promise-threat given to Abraham the first Jew when He said, “to those who bless you I will bless and to those who curse you I will curse” (Gen 12:1-3). Of all people, Christians cannot be on the side of those who oppose Israel.