There's a church in the city of Bethlehem.
It was built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
It's called the Church of the Nativity.
If you consult UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites,
or ask travel expert Rick Steves,
both will tell you that the church is in Palestine.
But when a question about the church's location came up
during a round of Jeopardy in January 2020...
What is Palestine?
No.
What is Israel?
That's it.
That answer set off something of an internet firestorm.
That's because what you call this land, and who controls it, is at the center of
a decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
But more recently, there is also a third group
that is becoming more and more influential here and throughout the Middle East,
American evangelical Christians.
Today, evangelical Christians are one of the most
politically powerful voting blocs in the United States.
And in the Trump administration, they've been given unprecedented power.
They've turned support for Israel and hostility towards its enemies
into core tenets of conservative ideology.
And a big part of those policies is rooted
in how they interpret the Bible.
In 2016, more than a quarter of all US voters
identified as white evangelical Christians.
One of the primary differences between evangelicals and other Christians is their
relationship with the Bible.
Conservative evangelicals believe that the Bible is literally true.
Sarah Posner writes about religion for a bunch of different publications.
Many of them believe that the Bible is sort of this prophetic
road map for modern life, that events described and prophesied in the Bible
will it will become true.
The Bible is the most historically accurate book ever penned.
The Bible is the one book that dares to predict the future with 100% accuracy.
For evangelicals, the most important of the Bible's prophecies is
the second coming, when Jesus will return to Earth.
The Bible doesn't say when this will happen,
but it does say where.
This is Jerusalem.
World history as we know it is going to end right here.
Greg Laurie is an evangelical preacher,
one of several who meet regularly to advise President Trump.
They're the leaders of megachurches with tens of thousands of members.
And many of them, including Greg Laurie, preach a belief called Christian Zionism,
the idea that the return of the Jewish people to Israel is one of a series of
events that will trigger Jesus's second coming.
Jesus is telling us that the rebirth of Israel is a sign of the end.
Not just a sign, it's the super sign.
According to this theology, God will reward those who help Israel
and punish those who don't.
Jesus will be on his throne and he separates the nations.
On what basis? How they treated Zion.
Let's back up.
After the Holocaust, the UN divided up the then-British territory of Palestine,
home to more than a million Arabs, into two states,
giving Jews who had been persecuted in Europe a homeland.
Over the next few decades, Israel fought multiple wars with its Arab neighbors
and seized much of the land that had been originally set aside for Palestinians.
Evangelical Christians see that as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
It happened exactly as foretold. It was a miraculous act of God.
They own that land, and they own that city.
Ever since, groups like Hamas have been fighting against the Israelis trying to
win that territory back.
And the government of Iran has been one of their biggest supporters.
That's part of the reason Iran plays such an important role in evangelical beliefs
about the present state of the world, and the future.
According to Christian Zionism,
if the US wants to be on the right side of biblical prophecy,
they need to do everything possible to protect Israel and punish Iran.
That also helps explain why a different Bible story is also really important to them.
The Old Testament story of Esther, about a plot to destroy the Jews of Persia,
or modern-day Iran.
The Book of Esther plays such an important role for Christian Zionists
they've made multiple movies out of it.
He has convinced your husband to destroy all the Jews, including you.
Esther saves the Jews by using her persuasion with the king.
Evangelicals who are very wrapped up in this kind of theology,
because Persia is modern-day Iran, they sort of contextualize this Bible story
into foreign policies.
Could it be that that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this,
just like Queen Esther. to help save the Jewish people from an Iranian Menace?
As a Christian I certainly believe that's possible.
I'm confident that the Lord is at work here.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo and vice president Mike Pence both identify as evangelical Christians.
And both have enormous influence over American foreign policy.
A ProPublica investigation found that Pence routed millions of dollars in foreign aid
that had been earmarked for humanitarian projects in Iraq, diverting it towards
Christian groups in the country.
When President Trump approved the drone strike that killed Iran's top military commander in January 2020,
it was, according to the Washington Post, at Pompeo and Pence's urging.
When President Trump moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
the move had more support from American evangelicals than American Jews.
The other news swirling around the embassy's move to Jerusalem is what it could signal as part of biblical prophecy.
Donald Trump recognized history.
He, like King Cyrus before him,
fulfilled the biblical prophecy.
That evangelical support isn't an accident.
The Trump administration courts it.
After the administration put out a peace plan that would have given Israel
unprecedented control over Palestinian land,
The Christian broadcast network interviewed Trump's ambassador to Israel.
You're talking about opening up the Bible, bringing it back to life in ways
that I think your listeners could not have even have imagined.
it's an opportunity for biblical tourism that I think will grow and flourish in profound ways.
The network's coverage followed his lead.
Good news in this proposed peace plan.
Israel would have sovereignty over many historical biblical sites.
For evangelical Christians in America, the Bible isn't just a foundational text,
it's a prophetic road map that tells the future and shapes the way they view the present.
And for an influential group of them, that motivates their support for a foreign policy
that they see as affirming those prophecies,
and a president who depends on their votes.
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