Evangelicals Support the Move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
The United States embassy was moved yesterday from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This long-awaited move is viewed in a variety of ways by Israelis, Americans and by Palestinians. It is disturbing to witness the violence erupting in Gaza protesting the move and learning that more than a dozen were killed. Our prayers go out to the families of those who died and to the IDF soldiers who are in harm’s way as well as those Israelis living on the border of Gaza who had to evacuate their homes. We are reminded of the words of the Psalmist who told us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and encourage all who love the Lord and Jerusalem to pray today for peace.
Meanwhile, there is a group in the United States who clearly affirm the move of the embassy because of their biblical understanding of God’s plan and purposes for Israel and the Jewish people. A recent survey, just released, discovered that Evangelicals Christians are strongly in favor of the move of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
News of the survey, released on May 10th by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke studied Christian Evangelical attitudes towards Israel and discovered some interesting trends in opinions on issues like the US embassy move.
The survey was carried out by LifeWay Research, and financially supported by Academic Engagement Network, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and Chosen People Ministries. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.27% accounting for weights. [1] The survey on Evangelical’s attitudes toward Israel, conducted by Motti Inbari, Kirill Bumin, and Gordon Byrd, scholars from UNC Pembroke, shows that 62% of evangelicals agree with the statement that the Bible says Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, with only 5.1% disagreeing. Over a quarter of Evangelicals (26%) said they do not know; and another 6.8% of respondents do not consider what the Bible says as relevant in political matters.
Dr. Inbari explains, “Among other things, we want to know how the US embassy move would affect the support for Israel among Evangelicals.” The majority (53.5%) of Evangelicals said their support stayed about the same, but 22.7% said their support for Israel increased in light of the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem; while only 4.1% said their support decreased (14.5% are not sure, 5.2% said they rather not say).
Over a fifth (22.7%) of evangelicals said their support for Israel has increased in light of the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem; while only 4.1% said their support decreased, a new survey finds.
The full survey which will be released soon and includes some additional groundbreaking information about Evangelicals attitudes towards Israel.
[1] A demographically balanced online panel was used for surveying American adults. The sample was screened to include only those who consider themselves as Evangelical and/or Born-again Christians. Maximum quotas and slight weights were used for gender, region, age, ethnicity, and education to more accurately reflect this population (as defined by Pew Religious Landscape Survey).
