Is God Finished with Israel? The Question Dividing Christians and What Scripture Says

For a lot of Christians, Israel enters the conversation through news coverage, social media, and political arguments. That can make it difficult to know where faith ends and politics begins.

Alan DiDio thinks Christians are starting in the wrong place.

In a conversation with Don Nori about his book Erasing Israel: Seven Deadly Lies That Rewrite God’s Promises and Fuel False Prophecy, DiDio keeps coming back to a simpler question: What does the Bible actually say about Israel?

His answer shapes the whole book: “God is not done with Israel.”

That conviction is also at the center of the book’s official description, which frames Erasing Israel around the question of whether Israel still matters in God’s plan.

Start with Scripture, Not the Argument

One of DiDio’s main concerns is replacement theology, also called supersessionism. In plain English, he describes it as the belief that the Church has replaced Israel and that the promises God made to Israel now belong to the Church.

DiDio disagrees.

For him, Israel still has a place in the biblical story. That does not mean he believes Jewish people have a separate path to salvation; in the interview, he specifically says salvation is through Jesus. His point is about God’s promises and purposes for Israel as a people and nation.

Why should the average Christian care about a theological debate that may sound distant from everyday life?

Because, DiDio argues, the way Christians answer that question affects the way they read the rest of Scripture.

“How you read the Bible is shown by how you view Israel,” he tells Nori. His concern is that Christians can begin treating clear biblical language as symbolic whenever the text becomes difficult to fit into their theology.

You do not have to be a prophecy scholar to see the question underneath that argument: When God makes a promise in Scripture, what do we believe He means?

Supporting Israel is Not the Same as Approving Everything Israel Does

DiDio also makes a distinction that often disappears once the subject becomes political.

Believing that God still has a purpose for Israel, he says, does not mean believing that every decision made by Israel’s government is right.

“Zionism doesn’t say everything Israel does is right,” he says in the interview.

Later, he goes further. Sometimes, he says, supporting Israel can include saying when something is wrong.

That matters because it leaves room for moral judgment without turning the entire biblical question into a referendum on a government’s latest decision.

DiDio’s argument is theological: Israel’s failures do not, in his reading of Scripture, erase Israel from God’s purposes.

The Conversation Also Forces A Harder Question About Hatred

Erasing Israel is concerned with more than prophecy. DiDio spends a significant part of the interview discussing antisemitism and what happens when disagreement with Israel or Jewish people turns into suspicion, contempt, or hatred.

One of the simplest responses he offers is prayer.

The Bible instructs believers to pray for Jerusalem, he says, and Christianity also teaches believers to pray for their enemies. His point is difficult to dodge: even if someone believes Israel is wrong, that does not give a Christian permission to hate.

“Something happens when your prayer life begins with a selfless prayer instead of a selfish prayer,” DiDio says.

That is worth sitting with.

Prayer does not require ignoring wrongdoing. It does require examining what is happening in our own hearts while we judge it.

So Why Does Israel Matter?

Near the end of the conversation, Don Nori puts the question in everyday terms. What about the Christian who already has enough to worry about and wonders why Israel should matter at all?

DiDio’s answer is that Christians cannot fully understand the biblical story, especially its promises and prophecy, if they simply remove Israel from it. He believes current events should push believers back toward Scripture, not deeper into online arguments.

That may be the best way into Erasing Israel.

The book does not begin with the assumption that Israel is merely another political issue to sort into a familiar camp. It asks readers to go farther back: to Abraham, the prophets, the words of Jesus, the writings of Paul, and the promises Christians believe God has made.

DiDio wants readers to wrestle with one question before all the others:

Is God Finished with Israel?

If that question has been sitting somewhere in the back of your mind, Erasing Israel gives Alan DiDio’s biblical case for why his answer is no.

If this idea connects with questions you have been asking about Israel, Scripture, and prophecy, explore more of Alan DiDio’s insights in Erasing Israel: Seven Deadly Lies That Rewrite God’s Promises and Fuel False Prophecy.