Why
must we understand or revisit the history of oppression and persecution caused
by anti-Semitism within Christendom? This will arm the Believer with a heart of
compassion and contrition when earnest attempts to share the Good News of
Yeshua (Jesus) are met with stiff resistance.
Rabbi
Gil Kaplan
www.buildersofunity.org All
Scripture is NKJV |
Anti-Jewish
bias, prejudice, contempt and injustice, which appeared early in Christianity,
has resurfaced numerous times throughout church history, and is still deeply entrenched
in segments of the church today perpetuating the paranoia of the Jewish community.
Repentance
is healing and powerful. If true Christians acknowledge the sins of the past
and learn to sympathize with the Jewish Community for this distorted image, we
will better be able to express God’s loving message of salvation. Understanding
how and why anti-Semitism happens is the gateway of enlightenment that can
nurture change and fuel hopes of promulgating the Christian values of faith,
hope, and love.
There
is a big difference between the anti-Semitic acts of so-called Christianity, which has persecuted the Jewish people, and
those who truly follow the teachings of Yeshua, who taught love for all. True
Christians should denounce any form of anti-Semitism as being absolutely
irreconcilable with the profession and practice of the Christian faith.
The
history of the Jewish people should stir us up, and challenge us to take Godly
action to correct the wrong deeds of the past. We must break down barriers and
misconceptions between Jews and Gentiles, as well as church and synagogue relations,
and offer unwavering support for Israel’s God-given right to the Land.
Anti-Semitism
is a grim and appalling picture of human depravity and cruelty. The theological
roots of anti-Semitism are found in the following indictment against the Jewish
community: they are allegedly solely to blame for Christ’s death and are
therefore “Christ killers,” “guilty of deicide” or “killing God”. History has repeatedly
demonstrated that within man’s heart exists the evil by which he can destroy himself
and others.
The epitaph “Christ killer” has become synonymous for the Jew by anti-Semites throughout the ages. Countless so-called Christians including Popes, Bishops, Monks, kings, theologians, and philosophers not only condoned but also participated in their persecution. On the basis of this theology many church leaders felt that they could show their loyalty to Christ by expressing their hatred towards His murderers…the Jewish people.
However,
who was really responsible for the crucifixion and death of Christ Jesus? The
only place to find the correct answer is in the Bible. A close examination reveals
that there were six distinct parties involved in the crucifixion and death of
Christ Jesus.
The
primary party is Yeshua Himself, who laid His life down for all men as a sin
offering in obedience to the will of the Father. Anyone who misses this point
has missed the single most powerful and precious argument in this controversy.
(See: Luke 22:42, John 10:11, 15, John 10:17, 18)
There
are complete studies on the biblical narratives naming all involved in the
crucifixion, which include satan,
a small group of Jewish leaders, and the Romans, but we must face that all of
us were sinners needing a savior. Our own complicity is made clear in the following
scriptures: Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 53:6, 7 and 10.
John
3:16 declares “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is
unfathomable love. No mere mortal could ever dream of such an act. When He gave
Yeshua, He gave Him to die even as typified in the Old Testament, by Abraham
offering his son Isaac.
Notwithstanding
all that has been said so far, the charge of “deicide” or of “Christ killer”
cannot stand against the Jews - or anyone else – for He is alive! He is not a
murder victim! He laid His life down and took it up again – and He shall return
victorious!
It
is essential to understand these truths, as deception, falsehood and ignorance
has led to nearly 2,000 years of hatred and persecution of the Jewish People in
the name of Jesus Christ, building a near impenetrable wall between the Jewish
People and their Messiah.
Following
is a history of the persecution of the Jewish People in the name of Christ and
Christianity from the Third Century:
306-337 A.D. Constantine the
Great, Roman Emperor, Christianized the Roman Empire and published the edict of
“Milan” extending religious tolerance to Christians, while Jews lost many
rights.
325 A.D. Constantine
presided over the famous council of “Nicea” resulting
in the “Nicene Creed” – a series of restrictive edicts against the Jewish
people. These laws systematically persecuted the Jews and spread in every
direction of the church. If the following restrictions were disobeyed, they
would be exiled and their property confiscated:
·
Christians
and Jews could not intermarry
·
Jews were
not granted civil equality with Christians or Pagans
·
The government
impounded money sent to Jews in Palestine
·
Jews barred
from official positions and public office
·
Jerusalem
became off limits to Jews on pain of death
·
Jews were
forbidden to celebrate Passover, Holy Days, Feasts/Festivals and even the Sabbath
in some places
344 A.D. – 407 A.D.
John Chrysostom, the “golden-mouth orator” - a Bishop and canonized saint by
the Roman Catholic Church, blamed the entire Jewish race for the death of Jesus
and sought to separate Christianity from its Jewish roots.
589 A.D. The Third
Council of Toledo in Spain ordered children born of marriage between Jews and
Christians be baptized by force.
613 A.D. Jews given the option of leaving Spain or converting to
Christianity.
722 A.D. Jews
forced to convert to Christianity in Constantinople.
855 A.D. Jews
exiled from Italy.
1096 A.D. The
“Crusades” begin, tens of thousands of Jewish people killed in “Holy Wars.” The
persecution and slaughter continued until 1272.
1121 A.D. Jews were
driven out of Flanders (now part of Belgium) until they repented the guilt of
killing Jesus Christ.
1146 A.D. Renewed
persecution of the Jews in Germany at the beginning of the second crusade, the
French Monk Rudolf called for the destruction of the Jews.
1215 A.D. Pope
Innocent the Third set cannons affecting the Jews - Baptized Jews were
forbidden to practice Jewish customs, Jews were forced to wear humiliating
dress or badges of shame for identification.
1225 to 1274 A.D.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Italian Dominican Monk,
considered the Jew in this way, “the Jew is nothing more than an animal, and it
would be legal according to custom to hold Jews because of their crime in
perpetual servitude or slavery.”
1229 A.D. The
Spanish Inquisition begins.
1252 A.D. Pope
Innocent the Fourth authorizes the use of torture by the Inquisitors against
Jews and other apostates.
1290 A.D. Edward the
First banished the Jews from England. 16,000 Jews were forced to leave the
country.
1348 – 1350 A.D.
Jews blamed for causing the “black death” plague in Europe by poisoning wells
and rivers. As a result, 5,000 Jews were tortured and burned alive at the
stake. 12,000 Jews perished in Bavaria.
1391 A.D. Jewish
persecutions began in Seville and 70 other Jewish communities throughout Spain.
Jews were cruelly massacred and their bodies dismembered.
1453 A.D. The
Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the King of Poland to withdraw all
rights of citizenship for Jewish people.
1492 A.D. “Columbus
sailed the ocean blue” commissioned by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of
Spain (looking to make Spain a purely Catholic country). Jews were given the
choice of being baptized as Christians or be banished from Spain; 300,000 left
Spain penniless.
1497 A.D. Jews
banished from Portugal; 20,000 Jews left the country rather than be baptized as
Christians, others became slaves.
1543 Martin Luther published a pamphlet
entitled, On Jews and Their Lies. He recommended that houses of Jews be “razed
and destroyed,” and their religious books burned. This pamphlet and his later
anti-Semitic writings called “Annuls of the Jews,” paved the way theologically
for Hitler and the Nazis in Germany.
1794 Restriction of
Jews in Russia, Jewish men were forced to serve 25 years in the Russian
military.
1846 Pope Pius the
Ninth restored all former restrictions against the Jews in the Vatican State.
1933 Hitler rises to
Chancellor of Germany. And the Nazi Era begins.
Virulent anti-Semitic propaganda and the groundwork for Judenrein, meaning, “cleansed of Jews,” begins.
1934 Various racial
laws against the Jews were enacted in Germany forcing Jews out of schools and
professions.
1938 Kristallnacht
called “The Night of Broken Glass” took place on Nov. 9th and 10th
- during this government-sponsored program, the Nazi’s shattered the windows of
more than 1,000 synagogues in Germany, desecrating Torah Scrolls and burning
Prayer Books. 2,000 synagogues were burned; 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed.
Ninety-one Jews were murdered and 30,000 were arrested and sent to
concentration camps. Hitler reinstated the century-old church law, ordering all
Jews to wear a yellow Star of David as identification. A few hundred thousand
Jews were allowed to leave Germany only after they turned over all of their assets
to the government. Kristallnacht marked a turning point in Hitler’s campaign
against the Jews. This escalation of violence was considered to be the
beginning of the horrors of World War II.
1939 The Holocaust began.
Today, the word Holocaust has come to refer specifically to the methodic
elimination of European Jewry by the Nazi Third Reich, which did not end until
1945 with the conclusion of World War II. Six million Jews, including 1.5
million children, were systematically and savagely exterminated.
It seems impossible that such acts
could have been committed in the name of Christianity. But these are actual
historical accounts and examples of tragedies that can and have occurred when
so-called Christians fanatically follow leaders who do not follow the teachings
of Jesus and the Bible.
Presently, Anti-Semitism is again on the rise.
In Europe and Russia, for example, anti-Semitic hate crimes are at an all time
high since WWII. Jewish synagogues and cemeteries have been desecrated and Jews
have been beaten and even murdered. Then, of course, we have the continued
threat of world terrorism by radical Muslim extremists who hate the Jews and
are determined to completely destroy the nation of Israel and bring about world
domination under the Muslim faith.
The horrors of the past cannot be undone,
but we can stand with the Jewish People and speak out against any and all forms
of anti-Semitism. We can work tirelessly to reach out to the Jewish People with
the love of God and let them know that Yeshua came as their Messiah - and that
He loves and cares for them. And, His love is one of the fruit of the spirit
along with joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness
and temperance that the Jewish community need be shown now as ever.
Edmund Burke once
said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do nothing.”
This
article is reprinted with permission from Jewish Voice Today, POB 81439,
Phoenix AZ 85069, www.JewishVoiceToday.org