Cross of Jesus or Flag of Israel?

I am writing this as a missionary in Honduras who loves the church, serves the church, and spends every day preaching Christ to people who desperately need Him. And I am watching something unfold in both Honduras and the United States that honestly leaves me stunned. I keep seeing Israel flags everywhere. They are on platforms, behind pulpits, hanging from rafters, displayed on church anniversaries and conference promotions. In a a friends of mine’s church they even use the flag during worship, waving it around and dancing.

But in far too many cases, I do not see a cross anywhere in sight. I am sorry, but I cannot pretend that this does not bother me. I cannot see it any other way.

As long as we keep lifting up Israel above all, we are not lifting up Jesus.

I want to be clear: I am not an advocate for replacement theology. Replacement theology is the belief that God has completely rejected Israel and that the church has fully taken Israel’s place in God’s plan.

That is not what I am saying.

What I am saying is that we cannot put Israel in front of the cross or treat the nation as the center of God’s covenant. The cross must remain central. Christ must remain the focus.

People can accuse me of misunderstanding the trend, but I live in two countries and I see the same thing in both places. Pastors waving flags, churches posting Israel banners online and on their cars, Christians acting like it is a badge of spiritual maturity to display a symbol of a nation that largely rejects the Gospel.

This obsession does not come from scripture. It comes from tradition, emotion, and copying what other churches do to appear spiritual.

Let me speak plainly. Israel as a modern nation is not seeking Christ. They are not running toward the Gospel. They are not open to Jesus as Messiah. Scripture describes this clearly. Paul wrote in Romans chapter eleven that the branches were broken off because of unbelief. He did not say they were broken off because God rejected Israel. He said they were broken off because they rejected Christ.

Jesus said in John chapter five that they searched the scriptures but refused to come to Him. Stephen stood before the council in Acts seven and said that Israel always resisted the Holy Spirit. This is not a personal opinion. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit through scripture.

So when I walk into a church and see an Israel flag lifted up higher than the name of Christ, I cannot just shrug.

It feels spiritually backward. The cross is the center of our faith. The resurrection is the center of our hope. Christ is the center of the new covenant. But when the cross disappears and flags take its place, the symbolism speaks louder than the preaching.

Many Christians defend the trend by quoting Genesis chapter twelve and saying that blessing Israel will make us blessed. But Paul dismantles that argument in Galatians chapter three. He explains that the promise was made to Abraham and to his seed, and that seed is Christ. Not a nation. Not a political entity. Christ. And then Paul says something even more radical. He says that those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed. This means that the covenant blessing does not flow through ethnicity or land. It flows through Jesus.

If I want to bless what God blesses, I lift up Christ. If I want to honor the covenant, I honor the Messiah who established the new one with His own blood.

The theology becomes even clearer when you look at Israel’s history. Israel broke covenant repeatedly. God never did. God was faithful. The people were not. Read the prophets. Jeremiah wept over the rebellion of the people. Isaiah confronted their idolatry. Hosea illustrated their unfaithfulness. Ezekiel exposed their sin. The story is not about a faithful nation. It is about a faithful God who loved a faithless people. And because the people continued to reject the covenant, God promised something new.

Hebrews chapter eight quotes Jeremiah and says that God would make a new covenant. A better covenant. A covenant not written on stone but written on hearts. The writer of Hebrews then says that by calling the covenant “new,” God made the old obsolete. Those are not my words. That is scripture. The old did not disappear because God failed. It disappeared because Christ fulfilled it.

This is why I cannot get behind doctrines that elevate Israel as a nation. I cannot treat them as spiritually superior when the new covenant does not operate that way. The Gospel now goes to every nation. Jesus said in Matthew chapter twenty-eight to make disciples of all nations. Paul said in Ephesians chapter two that Christ broke down the wall of separation and made one new man in Himself. The church is not a Jewish identity or a Gentile identity. It is a Christ identity.

Yet I keep seeing pastors who have no personal connection to Israel wave flags like it makes them deep. They are not evangelizing in Israel. They are not discipling Jewish believers. They are not preaching Jesus on the streets of Tel Aviv or Haifa or Jerusalem. They are not praying for the salvation of the Jewish people in any serious way. They are simply copying what another church did because it looks spiritual. This is not discernment. It is imitation. And imitation without substance becomes idolatry.

I have no issue with praying for Israel. Pray for every nation. Pray for the lost everywhere. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for God’s mercy to reach the Jewish people. The church should pray for the salvation of every nation under heaven. But raising a flag is not prayer. And elevating a nation is not the Gospel.

I am writing this as someone who sees this trend in Honduras where people barely understand their own Bibles yet are told to wave a flag they know nothing about. And I see it in the States where churches adopt trends because they think being “connected to Israel” gives them spiritual authority.

Most of the time, it is nothing more than a symbol added to make people feel prophetic.

I am sorry, but I cannot see this differently.

Christ is the center of everything. Christ is the one lifted up. Christ is the one who draws all men. Christ is the one who broke down the wall. Christ is the seed of Abraham. Christ is the fulfillment of the law and prophets. And Christ alone deserves the place that so many churches are giving to a flag.

If you want a flag to pray for the salvation of a nation, I support that without hesitation. But if the flag is raised to elevate a nation, then I cannot agree. The church that lifts up Israel more than Jesus has already lost sight of the Gospel. The church that replaces the cross with national symbolism has traded the new covenant for nostalgia. And the church that copies trends without understanding them is walking blindly.

My heart is for the church to come back to Christ. Not culture. Not politics. Not symbolism. Christ. I am not against Israel. I am for the Gospel. And anything that competes with the Gospel in the house of God has to be secondary.

I do believe God is faithful and that He is not done with Israel. His promises have never failed, and His covenant love remains steadfast. Scripture reminds us that He can graft them back in when they turn to Christ in faith (Romans 11). God’s faithfulness to Israel does not conflict with the centrality of Christ. We honor God’s promises by lifting up the Messiah, not a flag.

God’s plan is bigger than any nation, and His heart is to redeem all people through Jesus. My concern is that in elevating a nation above Christ, we risk missing the very purpose of God’s faithfulness, to bring salvation to all through His Son. Israel’s future is secure in God’s hands, but the cross must remain our guiding symbol today.