Why Israel means so much to evangelical Christians.

Tomlinson's calculations, based on the prophecies of Daniel and biblical commentaries, convinced him that in 1966 the Kingdom of God would come on Earth and the throne of David would be restored. The New Yorker even tracked Tomlinson's road to Jerusalem.

Well, the Kingdom of God did not arrive in 1966. But its arrival is still on many minds. While most evangelicals know nothing of Tomlinson's antics, most share his deepest conviction: that the nation of Israel and the "end times" are inseparably linked. Indeed, they believe that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 set the stage for the return of Christ. This is one reason evangelicals have been such strong supporters of Israel throughout its history, including today.

One source of an end-times scenario is the best-selling Scofield Reference Bible (1909). There we can read how Christ's Second Coming and the founding of a new Heaven and new Earth will follow the arrival of the Anti-Christ, the tribulation and the conversion of the Jewish nation. The battles of Armageddon will take place in Israel, it is believed, and the triumphant return of Christ will end them, establishing Jerusalem as the capital of his earthly kingdom.

For evangelicals, marking events in Israel is a way of noting progress on their own end-times calendar. It reminds them of the need to evangelize the lost as well as of the importance of their own readiness for Christ's return. Some also eagerly await the conversion to Christianity of the Jews, taking literally (as the Scofield Bible teaches) the words of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "All Israel shall be saved." This hope has long animated evangelical missions to the Jews.

A vast popular literature draws on this passion for unlocking the future, and it revolves around Israel as the place to which Christ came and will return to reign for 1,000 years. Jerusalem, the seat of the earthly kingdom of God, is central to such eschatology. Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins's "Left Behind" series are two of its best-selling forms.

But the evangelical interest in Israel reaches much further back than 1948. Jonathan Edwards, grandson of the Puritans and promoter of the Great Awakening, proclaimed in the 18th century his expectation that the Jews would return to the land of Israel. For Edwards, this certainty was rooted in the character of God, who had promised it. And so generations of American evangelicals have embraced the view that the God who is faithful to his promises will someday restore Israel uncontrovertibly to the Jews.

This historical fascination with Israel does not mean that evangelicals everywhere endorse whatever Israel does. Though they may point to biblical passages that seem to them to explain the conflict, they do not neglect the biblical injunction to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And clearly the most strident factions of the Christian Right do not speak for all evangelicals.

But a substantial group does give Israel a unique place in history's prophetic unfolding. Popular evangelicalism assigns the Jews at least "favored nation" status, even if it does not envision their full conversion. And the belief that the state of Israel plays a determinative role in the end-times calendar encourages the devout to pay attention to day-to-day events there that hold significance for their own salvation and the ushering in of the kingdom of God.
This interest easily takes political form, but its driving force is spiritual and its implications are practical. What happens to Israelis and Palestinians is for some evangelicals primarily about God and God's covenant with man. Events in Israel perennially suggest to them that "the day" is at hand, summoning all humankind to conversion.

Ms. Blumhofer directs the Institute for the Study of Evangelicals at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.