Is Israel having its own homeland the key to the return of Jesus and the Rapture? Is that why many Christians support Israel, not Palestine?

Good question Rosie, As a few have mentioned ,Rapture is not mentioned in the Bible , the Jews lost favor with God ,when they put his son to death. Jesus said he would return in kingly power, as king of Gods Kingdom government , to put an end to wickedness and suffering on the earth ,and make way for peaceful conditions where mankind will live in peace on the earth as God intended . psalms 37:9-11,29 (psalms 37:9-11,29) Psalm 37:9-11 9 For evil men will be done away with,+ But those hoping in Jehovah will possess the earth.+ ו [Waw] 10 Just a little while longer, and the wicked will be no more;+ You will look at where they were, And they will not be there.+ 11 But the meek will possess the earth,+ And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.+ Psalm 37:29 29 The righteous will possess the earth,+ And they will live forever on it. We know we are getting close to this time when the kingdom will bring this about ,Jesus gave a prophecy to know when this would happen. Matthew 24:3-14 3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence*+ and of the conclusion of the system of things?”*+ 4 In answer Jesus said to them: “Look out that nobody misleads you,+ 5 for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.+ 6 You are going to hear of wars and reports of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for these things must take place, but the end is not yet.+ 7 “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,+ and there will be food shortages+ and earthquakes in one place after another.+ 8 All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. 9 “Then people will hand you over to tribulation+ and will kill you,+ and you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name.+ 10 Then, too, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and mislead many;+ 12 and because of the increasing of lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold. 13 But the one who has endured* to the end will be saved.+ 14 And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations,+ and then the end will come. revelation 21:4 (revelation 21:4) Revelation 21:4 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes,+ and death will be no more,+ neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.+ The former things have passed away.”M 2 Timothy 3:1-5 3 But know this, that in the last days+ critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, 3 having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, 5 having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power;+ and from these turn away.

The Rapture is a very obscure belief of a few Christian denominations in the US, based on questionable interpretations of English versions of the Bible. And not many Christians are expecting an imminent return of Jesus, and not many of those would consider a Jewish occupation of Jerusalem as a necessary criterion. So, while a few Christians may believe as you say, I would definitely see them as a minority even in the US, and a tiny minority worldwide.

I find that not everyone has the same idea as to what the rapture means. May I ask what your thoughts are about it?

To address the first part of your question. The ancient city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE, This, because the Israelites were grossly violating their national covenant with Jehovah, that was mediated by the prophet Moses. They were involved in idolatrous worship and were breaking God’s laws that forbid them to eat certain things. They were defiling themselves before the God of their covenant and did nothing for his glory. This being the case, among whom then do the prophecies about the restoration of Israel have fulfilment? Note what the Scriptures say at Gal. 6:15, 16: “Neither is circumcision anything nor is uncircumcision, but a new creation is something. And all those who will walk orderly by this rule of conduct, upon them be peace and mercy, even upon the Israel of God.” (So “the Israel of God” is no longer determined on the basis of conforming to the requirement laid upon Abraham for all the males of his household to be circumcised. Rather, as stated at Galatians 3:26-29, those who belong to Christ and who are spirit-begotten sons of God “are really Abraham’s seed.” So today we have a spiritual Israel of God as outlined in the Christian Greek Scriptures or the New Testament. Other scriptures elaborate on this matter. With the breaking off of some “natural branches” of the figurative olive tree, there was a grafting in of “wild” non-Israelite ones, so that there was no racial or class distinction among those that “are really Abraham’s seed, heirs with reference to a promise.” (Ro 11:17-24; Ga 3:28, 29) “Not all who spring from Israel are really ‘Israel.’” “For he is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit.” (Ro 9:6; 2:28, 29)

Q1: No. Q2: Only the heretics who don't know they're heretics: the Dispensationalists and their dupes. In orthodox Christianity and the New Testament, THE CHURCH is Israel, and the Promised Land is promised to her. The non-Christian Jews are no longer part of Israel and won't be unless they come to Jesus acknowledging hims as the Messiah. And "the Rapture" as popularly misunderstood and promoted in stupid and theologically (as well as historically) false books like Late Great Planet Earth and Left Behind is not a Biblical doctrine. What the NT and the Church teach is the 2nd Coming. What gets misinterpreted by Dispensationalists as "the [pre-Tribulation] Rapture of the [Gentile only] Church [which is not Israel, but is an afterthought of God's necessitated by "the Jews" rejecting Jesus]" is a single line which is actually just talking about the faithful in Christ ascending to meet him as he returns, just as the populace of cities in ancient times would rush out to greet the returning king, joining his escort as he comes home in triumph. And Scripture is pretty clear that the 2nd Coming will happen when it happens, that it will come as a complete surprise in that moment, and all attempts to predict it - to say nothing of re-scheduling it - are foolish and presumptuous. But supporting the modern State of Israel vs. the (completely fictional) Palestinians (There's no such people as the Palestinians: there are only Jordanian Arabs, and also Egyptians and Arab-Egyptians in Gaza, most of their ancestors arriving in what is what was then Mandate-Palestine after the Zionists and Brits started developing it economically in the 1920s and 30s) isn't Zionist. We *support* the State of Israel for the same reasons and to the same degree we *support* any liberal, Western democracy over anti-liberal, non-Western, anti-Democratic and violent group of chronic malcontents, especially when that liberal, Western democracy is strategically located and vital to our interests in the region and the world. But any Christian worthy of the name who knows his theology would like the whole Promised Land to be entirely and exclusively inhabited and governed by Christians. Of course that goes for the whole world, but the Promised Land first and foremost.

Christ will return and out of Jerusalem...but most aren't aware that the antiChrist will come before HIM and rule out of Jerusalem.....no, the islamists will finally destroy the Jews in Israel....and take it over...this been going on for 1,000 years....its their goal....its is written that the antiChrist will rule out of Jersalem...which is islam (submission) ....and many will flock to islam and be deceived....the anti Christ comes before Christ will.....it will slaughter all the Jews and Christians and take over....universally too.

Not all Christians support Israel, only ones in the Western world do, and that's because they don't get neutral news sources regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. But Christians in India overwhelmingly support Palestine, for example.

There is no rapture (Jesus returning for just the church before/during the great tribulation). Jesus will return at the end of the great tribulation to reign and rule. The antichrist will come first and claim to be Christ. He will rule the world from Jerusalem. And institute the mark of the beast. I support Israel because the Bible says to support Israel. And because they are not the aggressors. They are a country, they have the right to their own country.They declared their independence and won that war for it, just as we did and gained more land in the subsequent wars after that. We are not going to give the southern states back to Mexico, so why would we expect Israel to give back its land?

Jesus has no need to return to earth. Will Christ return in a manner visible to human eyes? John 14:19: “A little longer and the world will behold me no more, but you [Jesus’ faithful apostles] will behold me, because I live and you will live.” (Jesus had promised his apostles that he would come again and take them to heaven to be with him. They could see him because they would be spirit creatures as he is. But the world would not see him again