Out of Zion

Susan Michael: Welcome to today's Out of Zion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Susan Michael, and I am just so happy to have with me a dear friend, Dr. AJ Nolte from Regent University. He is the Director of the Israel Institute as well as many other descriptions, like the Director of the MA program in Government and International Development. He also chairs the PhD program at the Robertson School.

AJ, welcome. I'm glad you're here. If you don't mind, I'll call you AJ as we're good friends. I would love for you to just tell our audience a little bit about your background and what led up to you being at Regent.

AJ Nolte: It's funny, in my 20s, I told God I would never do two things: I never wanted to plant a church and I never wanted to be the Israel guy. Now, I work at Regent, and when I'm not at Regent, I'm helping plant an Anglican church in the area where we live. Tell God your plans and God laughs.

Through my undergrad and graduate studies, I was focused on Christianity and Islam, Middle East politics, and South and Southeast Asia. I was really looking at the relationship between Christianity and Islam. At Regent, there was a need for someone to teach on Israel. I started teaching on Israel from a very political perspective.

I remember, and I chuckle at this memory now, I was very naive. My first year teaching at Regent, I said, "Okay guys, in this class we're just going to talk about history and politics. I'm not going to talk to you about theology." The problem was that as I studied the history and politics, I started realizing this didn't really make sense.

Countries don't come back after 2,000 years. Countries don't have the political system that Israel has without some sort of national crackup. Italy can't maintain a government for more than 30 seconds, and yet Israel is able to do all this stuff to a high level of competence. I started trying to figure out what was different.

As a Christian political scientist, when you eliminate all other secular explanations, you have to start looking at divine action. Providentially, at that time, I was put in touch with our mutual friend, Father Dr. Gerald McDermott. Like myself, he is a fellow Anglican and he had an entire theology of this.

It was a theology I had never encountered before, so I read his book, *The New Christian Zionism*. I was so impressed by it and some of his theological writing that I started assigning it. From there, God pulled me into the Israel space. I realized this is a unique and distinctive feature of Regent. If this is a unique feature, let's figure out how we do it well and how we pass on a love for Israel based on an understanding of Israel to the next generation of pro-Israel Christian leaders.

Susan Michael: I didn't know that story and the role that Dr. McDermott played, but his writings and his knowledge have really helped a lot of people. Since your background and expertise were in Islamic studies and the political side, you really understand the battle against Israel, the ideology, and the role of that ideology.

Yet, as a Bible-believing Christian, you understand the spiritual underpinnings to what's happening politically. That's what is missing in so many schools. Either a student is in seminary studying the Israel of the Bible and they don't know how to connect that to today, or they're in government, international affairs, or international law and they're studying the conflict without understanding the spiritual underpinnings. To have someone such as yourself who really gets both ends of that is unique. That's why I'm so appreciative of what you're doing at Regent.

AJ Nolte: That holistic understanding is very rare and very important. I always say that Christians have a little bit of a home-field advantage when it comes to studying radical Islam because we start from the assumption that religious people do things for religious reasons. That's very hard for some of my secular colleagues to understand.

It's impossible to understand Israel without that frame. It's not just a contest over land or resources; it's a conflict of theological visions and visions for the world. In many ways, it is a conflict of civilizational visions. There are those who share the values of Judeo-Christian civilization and those who have a different approach based on a different civilizational matrix, ideology, and background.

If we understand it in those terms, we can also understand some of the domestic struggle over Israel as that same fight over those civilizational, religious, and spiritual values.

Susan Michael: There at Regent, you've met a great student body of Christian young people. I assume their hearts are in the right place, but I also have to assume that you've been seeing some increased challenges regarding Israel. Tell us about what you're observing.

AJ Nolte: Before September of 2025, the biggest problem we had with the student body is the problem you'd have with any student body when you're trying to do anything, which is apathy combined with a thousand other things going on. It wasn't that there was any negativity toward Israel; it was more like we were competing with all the hundreds of other great options that Regent has for students.

However, starting in September, we actually saw something very different, which was young men with a conservative inclination coming back from summer break with a new attitude of negativity toward Israel. There was a series of arguments about Israel that really caught some of our student leaders off guard.

There were a couple of fascinating aspects about this. Number one, it was specifically politically active conservative young men. Their similarly situated female peers were not as exposed to these memes and arguments. The arguments really boiled down to a couple of things.

First, the idea that Israel as a state is somehow antithetical to Christians or bad for Christians or persecuting Christians. Second, the idea that there is an ineradicable conflict between Christianity and Judaism. I even had some students tell me they thought Islam was closer to Christianity than Judaism, that they shared more in common, and that the Quran was more positive toward Jesus than the Talmud.

The third line of argument was the idea that the US government is too beholden to Israel and that we are too favorable toward them. There was an idea that it's okay to burn an American flag but not okay to burn an Israeli flag. That was an easy question for me to answer. I said, "What on earth makes you think I'm okay with people burning American flags? That's the flag of my country."

I was well-positioned to answer a lot of these questions given my background, but a lot of our student leaders were taken completely off guard. We pivoted to a response where I would just get in a room with the students, invite anyone who had questions, and do an Israel Q&A to try to answer their concerns.

That was reasonably effective. Of course, the trick is getting those students who are really anti-Israel to show up in the first place. But it was a rapid shift, significant enough that I feel like there was an orchestrated campaign targeting that subgroup sometime between May and September.

Susan Michael: Did you get any more specific information as to who they'd been listening to or where it was coming from? We know it's on social media.

AJ Nolte: Some of it's coming from the usual suspects like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. Regarding Nick Fuentes, I don't know that a Christian audience like this listens to him because they necessarily agree with him. I think they think he's like those morning drive-time shock jock radio guys who say really shocking, controversial things and they just want to see people's reactions.

Even if they reject it, it still injects some of those ideas into the bloodstream. I think some of it is also coming from a spillover from both some of the more traditional Catholic social media and some of the anti-Vatican II Catholics who are very antisemitic. Also, as you're aware, the "Christ is King" motif is definitely catching on with some of the younger guys.

I appreciate the energy of wanting to stand up and fight for your faith, and I tell them this. But right now, you're pointing your guns at our allies. You're pointing fire in the wrong direction.

Susan Michael: How do you feel about your efforts? Are you satisfied that you've been able to answer their questions and turn things around, or are you feeling frustrated that it's just ongoing?

AJ Nolte: For our little corner of space, I think we've done reasonably well. I can't answer the questions of people who don't show up, but if people have shown up and brought those questions, I feel like we're well-equipped to answer them. We're also equipping our student leaders to answer them.

I think what needs to happen more broadly is thinking about holistically how we solve the problem in social media. The problem is not a lack of pro-Israel influencers. There are people out there right now that are doing great work and are very effective in the space.

What I want to do is think about how we can equip them. I think of the model from World War II where the United States was the arsenal of democracy. I want us to be the arsenal of Judeo-Christian civilization for this eight-front war at the Israel Institute. That might not mean us being on the front lines, but it does mean taking the answers that we have and getting them out to the people on the front lines in social media so they're as equipped as possible to combat that battle.

Susan Michael: Tell us a little bit more about the Israel Institute. What is it, and what do you do under that banner?

AJ Nolte: In a nutshell, the purpose of the Israel Institute is to train and equip the next generation of pro-Israel Christian leaders. Regent's motto is "Christian Leadership to Change the World," and we want to make sure those Christian leaders are pro-Israel and that they are trained and equipped to go out into the fight.

We do that in a couple of different ways. We do that through course offerings where we collaborate with other academic units. I just worked with the Robertson School, and we've got a new concentration in Israel Studies in our Masters in Government at Regent.

We also have a wonderful scholarship from the ICEJ. That is for pro-Israel Christians who are wanting to do a PhD dissertation on Israel. We need scholars if we're going to fight and win the battle in academia. For undergraduate students, we've done everything from trips to educational events. We're taking a group of students to Poland and Israel in a couple of weeks, assuming that everything holds up in terms of the region.

We are hoping to move into more training resources for things like social media and peer-to-peer interactions so our young leaders can go out and be equipped with the knowledge that we have. One of the things that I've learned with Gen Z is that by far the most effective way to reach them is peer-to-peer engagement. They're not going to listen to us older millennials or folks in generations up from that, but they will listen to their peers.

If that's the case, I look at it as how we arm and equip their peers to win the battle for the hearts and minds of their own generation. That's the purpose of the Israel Institute.

Susan Michael: It's one by one, and it's about relationships. My heart goes out to that generation because they really don't know who to believe. Our media has been so co-opted that you could hear anything on social media or mainstream media. They're looking for those trusted sources. I'm so glad that at Regent they have you as a trusted source. I'm hoping that ICEJ can also be seen as a trusted source for that generation.

AJ Nolte: I'm optimistic about Gen Z simply because I work with them day in and day out in the classroom. They're great kids and they're hungry for truth. They're in some ways more hungry for truth even than my generation was. But the problem is it is so hard to find because the zone is flooded.

If there's any advice I have for a parent listening to this with young kids, teach your kids the Bible. Get your kids reading the Bible and get your kids connecting the Bible not only to the land where it took place but the people among whom it took place. If you can do that, then when they come to Regent, we'll get them the rest of the way.

That is so foundational. What we find is that students who come in understanding the Bible took place in a place and was connected to a people—and really understand that Abrahamic covenant—they are solid. They are more insulated against this anti-Israel propaganda. They don't always necessarily have the answers, but they know that the answers are out there. I don't think we need to despair about Gen Z. I think there's a fight to be had. I also think we need to start preparing the ground for Gen Alpha as they're coming up as well.

Susan Michael: I agree with you. I love Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I just want to see them find the truth that they're looking for. They want to do good and they want to affect the world, so we just need to help them.

One of the best ways we can help them is not only through your program there at Regent but getting them to Israel. I know you're taking a group over next month, and you and I are working together on another program that every summer we hope will get young people over there to earn credit through Hebrew University.

There are a number of opportunities, and I just want to encourage our listeners that if you want to get behind reaching Generation Z and Alpha, I ask you to consider making a donation to our ICEJ Next Gen fund. From there, we're helping young people get to Israel and we're partnering with Regent. We need your financial help to be able to do more.

We'll put the link in today's show notes. Regent also needs more money for the scholarship fund. You can give to ICEJ and we can continue supporting that ICEJ Scholarship Fund at Regent University.

AJ, we just want to thank you for joining us and sharing about your important work.

AJ Nolte: Absolutely. If people want more information about the institute, go to regent.edu/israel. You'll find our podcast, our website, and our upcoming events. We appreciate your partnership and this audience. We could not have done what we've done without the support of ICEJ. We love working with them and we're looking forward to seeing where this partnership goes in the future.

Susan Michael: Thank you, AJ. God bless your work there at Regent. We love it. Thank you so much for listening in today. Please visit our show notes for more information. God bless.