Antisemitism

The current war in Israel against Hamas is highlighting the climate around the world regarding the attitudes toward the Jews. Antisemitism is rearing its ugly head all over the world, evidenced by protests and other public displays against Israel’s right to defend itself against the horrific evil perpetrated by Hamas against the civilian population near Gaza on October 7, 2023. It is of great importance for the Christian believer to understand the history and nature of this condition. 

According to the U.S. State Department, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It exists prevalently not just in nations that are opposed to Israel and its existence, but even within the Christian community in America and worldwide.

An article written by Gary Rosenblatt in March 2020 quotes Abraham Foxman, a child survivor of the Holocaust who led the ADL for five decades regarding our current state: “We’re living in an environment today that is more user-friendly to the virus [of antisemitism],” he said, “a time of incivility, lack of tolerance, no respect for the truth. And with it comes politicization, polarization, frustration, anger, hate—all the elements that fuel the virus.” The comparison to a virus similar to Covid 19 is appropriate since antisemitism can be both highly contagious and deadly. 

History of Israel

Understanding the nature of antisemitism requires an active look at the history of the Jewish nation and the world’s response to its existence. It begins with Abram and God’s promises to be a blessing to the nations of the world (Genesis 12:1-3). In Genesis 13:15-17, God promised Abram a particular tract of land, commonly referred to as the promised land: for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. “Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” According to many Scripture references, God promised that He would give it to Abram and his descendants forever!

The actual birth of the nation of Israel did not take place until Abraham’s grandson Jacob moved himself and his family (70 total – Genesis 46:27) to Egypt to join his son Joseph with Joseph’s family. They were held in slavery in Egypt until Moses led them to the wilderness and eventually, the promised land. Joshua led them to take control of the promised land and the land was distributed among the twelve tribes according to God’s commands. This land is significant in the life of every Jew. The Law of Moses would be their guide until the Messiah came to introduce and establish a new covenant. In the meantime, Israel would experience many highs and lows in route to its captivity in Babylon and a return to the land seventy years later.

A Partial Hardening

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB." "THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS." From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.        

Romans 11:25-29 

The rejection of Jesus as Messiah by the Jewish leadership of Jesus’s day was not the end of the story for Israel. Paul writes to the Roman church that the partial hardening that has happened will not be ended until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, referring to the end of the church age and Jesus’s return in the second coming. God promises that her sins will be taken away and that the Jews are still the people of God since the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Paul teaches that their rejection of the gospel had a purpose: But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous (Romans 11:11). God will use their jealousy, that other nations have access to some of the same privileges previously reserved for Israel, to bring them back to God. The Jews will be the center of attention in the Kingdom Age, when “In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" Zechariah 8:23.

Laying Down Your Life for the Sheep 

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." 

John 10:11-18 

The world would blame the Jews for Jesus’s death even though Jesus gave up His life willingly. The Roman Emperor Constantine had a Christian conversion experience around 312 and declared tolerance for Christianity in 313. The Council of Nicaea took place in 325 and he wrote the letter below to address the celebration of Easter instead of Passover: 

And truly, in the first place, it seemed to everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted wretches! Having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that rejecting the practice of this people we should perpetuate to all ages the celebration of this rite, in a more lawful order, which we have kept from the first day of the Lord’s passion even to the present times. Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews. We have received another method from the Savior. Wherefore, that a suitable reformation should take place in this respect [substituting Easter in the place of Passover], and that one rule should be followed, is the will of divine providence, as all I think must perceive. As this fault must be amended that we have nothing in common with the usage of these parricides and murderers of our Lord – and to have no fellowship with the perjury of the Jews. These being the case receive with cheerfulness the heavenly and truly divine command. For whatever is transacted in the holy council of bishops, is to be referred to the divine will.

Antisemitism Throughout the Church Age 

Several early church fathers saw the Jews as somewhat or totally culpable for the death of Jesus Christ. Justin Martyr (100-165) thought that the Gentiles replaced the Jews in God's redemptive plan. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, wrote that those who celebrated Passover with the Jews were partakers with those who killed the Lord. And Tertullian (160-220), in his work Against the Jews, blamed the entire Jewish race for the death of Jesus.

 

Various Catholic leaders who had great influence over public thought throughout the church age, including Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335-394), Saint Augustine (354-430), Saint Jerome (374-419), Pope Innocent III (1160/61-1216), and Pope Pious IV (1499-1565), had varying feelings of antisemitism. Pope Pious made the following statement: 

Until today, in truth, the Jews are scandalized when they hear that God was scourged, was crucified, and that He died, holding it unworthy so much as to hear that God endured things unworthily… The Jews who deny that Messiah has come and that He is God, lies. Herod is the devil, the Jews demons; that one is King of the Jews, this one the King of demons.    

Even Martin Luther had strong feelings of antisemitism, as he wrote in The Jew and Their Lies (1543): 

What shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us, and we know about their lying, blasphemy, and cursing, we cannot tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy. In this way, we cannot quench the inextinguishable fire of divine rage (as the prophets say) nor convert the Jews. We must prayerfully and reverentially practice a merciful severity. Perhaps we may save a few from the fire and the flames. We must not seek vengeance. They are surely being punished a thousand times more than we might wish them. Let me give you my honest advice.    

Antisemitism in America

Peter Stuyvesant, the first governor of Manhattan, was strongly antisemitic, constantly seeking ways to disqualify the Jews from public benefits to make them feel unwelcome. He referred to them as repugnant, blasphemers of Christ, and "Christ Killers." He wrote the following in the 1650's:

“We have, for the benefit of this week and newly developing place and the land in general, deemed it useful to require them (the Jews) in a friendly way to depart; also praying most seriously in this connection, for ourselves as also for the general community of your worships, that the deceitful race – such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ – be not allowed to infect further and trouble this new community.” 

In the 1920s, Harvard and Yale began to restrict Jewish acceptances in response to the fact that they had been outperforming their Gentile classmates. At Yale, Dean Frederick Jones got the administration to consider "character" in addition to scholarship. He stated, "In terms of scholarship and intelligence, Jewish students lead the class, but their characteristics make them markedly inferior.” His perceived solution to this character flaw would be conversion to Christianity. 

Book of Gad the Seer 

1 Chronicles 29:29 tells us that King David had three prophets he counted on for advice and direction: Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, and each one wrote a book. The Books of Samuel are included in Scripture while the Book of Nathan has never been found. The Book of Gad the Seer is not accepted as Scripture but includes several visions that God gave to Gad and one of them dealt with a donkey and a camel: And it came to pass when I finished crying out, I opened my eyes and saw a yoke of oxen, led by a donkey and a camel, coming up from the Kidron stream, the donkey on the right side of the yoke and the camel on the left. These represent two kingdoms, the donkey being Rome and the Roman church, while the camel speaks of Edom and Islam. Another vision defines the problem with the donkey and the camel, that they both embrace replacement theology, that their religious system replaces Israel in eschatology:

Woe to you, O Edom, that sits in the land of Kittim [Cyprus] in the north of the sea. For your destroyers will emerge from a terrible nation. They will not even leave you a remnant. For you have said: ‘I sit on high, and only I have a covenant with the God of gods, for the LORD chose me instead of His holy people, for He abhorred them. And His former people, despised and rejected, did not truly know the LORD [the Father] because they did not know His image [the Son]. We are truly wise and intelligent; we know the LORD and His Law, we know His image [the Son] and presence [the Holy Spirit].’ But thus says the LORD: ‘Because you rose up in pride to brag about the God of gods, know that you will perish in your conceitedness. For why would you put confidence in man, whose life is like a vapor, which begins in the morning, and is gone by noonday, placing him to sit beside God? For it is not you whom I knew formerly, and where is the bill of divorce of My people, that you said would be a prey; show it to Me!

The Great Harlot

Consider that the fulfillment of these visions is found in Revelation 17, where the Messiah comes to destroy the great harlot, Babylon the Great: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality" (Revelation 17:1-2). Replacement theology is completely untrue, and its proselytes have created a religious and political environment for violence against Israel and the Jews. The judgment of this movement, which includes Islam, is the fulfillment of the promises God made to Abram in Genesis 12:3: And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

So much of the current protests are the result of either a lack of knowledge or a total misunderstanding of the history of Israel, particularly since they became a recognized nation again in 1948. Remember, the Jews had just experienced the extermination of 6 million of its own, nearly 1/3 of the world’s Jewish population, by the Nazis. Immediately after May 14, 1948, five surrounding Arab nations declared war on the fledgling nation and this condition has defined Israel’s history since. The six-day war in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973 were intended to destroy Israel completely, but miraculously, Israel ended up adding territory in both wars. Israel has demonstrated throughout modern times that it is only interested in co-existing with Arabs, but the Moslem nations surrounding Israel, for the most part, are not interested in negotiating a lasting peace; their primary motive is in its destruction. Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative talk show host has created some YouTube videos that document the political history of the Jewish nation of Israel. They correct the misconceptions and lies that the Jews are at fault for the conflicts since they are the aggressors and occupiers.

Spiritual Warfare

The devil (Satan) would like nothing more than to see the complete destruction of God's people, including the Jews and the nation of Israel. We see in Scripture that he is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), he who accuses them before our God day and night. Jesus told us that he has come to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). He is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44) and He is against anyone who recognizes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He accuses even the high priest as he did to Joshua in Zechariah 3:1-2: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" In Revelation 17:6, the great harlot is drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

A Kingdom That Endures Forever

In the end, God will use all of the persecutions and other unfair attacks against the Jews to bring them to a knowledge of their Messiah. When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2, he not only prophesied the four kingdoms of Babylon, Medio-Persia, Greece, and Rome but also a picture of the end times events, represented by ten kings and a ten-king confederacy that will usher in the Millennial Kingdom, a kingdom that will endure forever. In Daniel 2:44, In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

 

References

Felix Halpern. “Thy Kingdom Come: The Mystery Of Israel’s Glory”. Destiny Image Publishers