US Senator Cruz to Evangelicals: Beware the online movement twisting Christianity against Jews

During an exclusive interview in his office on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz delivered a striking warning about what he sees as a dangerous theological distortion being spread online – one that mixes Christian language with hostility toward Jews and support for controversial ideas about Israel. This is the antithesis of true biblical Christianity. 

At the center of the debate is a phrase that many Christians would seemingly embrace. But Senator Cruz believes its use online has taken on a darker tone. 

“I’m really troubled by how the phrase Christ is King is being used,” Cruz told me during our conversation. “Look, I agree with the statement Christ is King, although it is being used online in a way that is meant to say, screw you, Jew. It is being used in a context very directly to say, I hate Jews.” 

That may sound shocking to many Christians who view the phrase simply as a declaration of faith. But Cruz argues that context matters. “Because you see the people who are saying it and they’re saying it in that context,” he explained. “They’re saying Jews are horrible, like they’re attacking Jews, and they end with Christ is King to make it sound like somehow there’s a biblical basis for attacking Jews.” 

JUST IN: In an exclusive interview with CBN News, Senator Ted Cruz warns that, “Christ Is King” Is being twisted online into an Anti-Jewish Code that is used to attack Jews. “I'm really troubled by how the phrase ‘Christ is King’ is being used. Look, I agree with the statement… pic.twitter.com/w5hPRhtW8x

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Cruz believes that theological distortion is not just wrong but historically dangerous. 

“Look, Jesus was a Jew,” he said. “And by the way, the twisted theology that says Jews are Christ killers and that’s been used to justify antisemitism, to justify persecution and murder.” 

That line of thinking has appeared throughout history and Cruz says Christians should reject it outright. “Look, as I read the Gospels, Jesus went to the cross willingly,” Cruz said. “He made the choice to go to the cross.” 

“It was not the Jews who killed Jesus. It was me, and it was you,” he said. “Look, Jesus died for our sins because man is fallen and the wages of sin is death.” 

That framing is central to traditional Evangelical theology. Cruz emphasized that the crucifixion is about the universal problem of sin, not a specific ethnic group. “Jesus took on the punishment that you deserve and I deserve, so that we could be covered in his blood and receive salvation not through works, not through what we do, but through the gift of God.” 

Cruz suggests the controversial phrase itself may not even have traditional church roots. “Christ is King is a phrase that seems to have originated online,” he said. And in his view, the tone surrounding it in certain corners of the internet feels more like militant political messaging than Christian proclamation. 

“It almost sort of invokes images of the crusade that, in the name of Jesus, we will conquer everyone else in a way that I don’t think is right or biblical.” 

That brought us to the bigger theological issue Cruz raised in the interview: something known as replacement theology – sometimes called supersessionism – which argues that the Christian Church replaced Israel in God’s covenant promises. 

Cruz rejects that idea outright. “I think this is a heresy,” he said bluntly. “And this is something Tucker and others are pushing, referring to political commentator Tucker Carlson. 

Cruz described the doctrine this way: “It is a notion that the promises in the Bible that God makes to Israel are no longer valid. The Jews are no longer God’s chosen people.” 

“And instead, replacement theology argues that the Christian Church has replaced Israel and the Jews as God’s chosen people and all of the promises in the Old Testament are now invalid.” 

For decades, many Evangelicals have believed the Bible’s promises to Israel still apply today. That belief has helped fuel strong Christian support for the modern state of Israel inside the Republican coalition. 

Cruz argues that replacement theology undermines that biblical foundation. 

“If God breaks his promises to the people of Israel, that suggests that God could break his promises to Christians as well,” Cruz said. “And I don’t believe God breaks his promises.” 

Cruz says Christians must pay close attention to what’s happening online because the theology being espoused is venomous at its core. He believes that many younger-aged Evangelicals are hearing this faulty theology.

In our conversation, he delivered a very direct message to the younger set about why it’s critical to support Israel and the Jewish people. 

“Listen, you're being lied to about Israel. Those who attack Zionism. Zionism simply says Israel should exist. By the way, the modern state of Israel was created coming out of World War II, coming out of the Holocaust, coming out of 6 million Jews being massacred in concentration camps by the Nazis and the phrase that came out of that was ‘never again,’ that Israel would have a homeland. So never again would they face genocide. That, to me, is a very reasonable proposition.”