Israel

ISRAEL – A LIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS

For far too long the Jews have been accused of being Christ killers. Christendom, too, cannot escape the charge of anti-Semitism. The term Christian anti-Semitism is an oxymoron. Our Saviour is Jewish, and our Bible is Jewish. But from the pen of Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, such hatred and vitriol was spewed out against the Jews that it should shock us. Let me provide an example. In 1543 Luther produced in his work, On the Jews and Their Lies in which he advised Christians of the following:

Next to the devil, a Christian has no more bitter and galling foe than a Jew. There is no other to whom we accord as many benefactions and from whom we suffer as much as we do from these base children of the devil, this brood of vipers.

And he further exhorted Christians to follow these practices:

…burn and raze Jewish synagogues and homes, remove their prayer books, forbid rabbis to pray, praise God, or teach on pain of death, revoke travel privileges and legal protection for Jews on the highways, forbid money-lending by Jews, forcibly remove all their cash, silver, gold or any possessions of worth unless they convert, then give them back enough just to live and work, consign Jews to forced labour so that they earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and if possible drive them out of Germany.

This advice was taken seriously and applied most effectively by Hitler. It seemed Hitler took a leaf from the pages of Luther’s writings. He applied the aphorism, Christ killer, most viciously against the Jewish people. No wonder much of Christendom was silent when the Holocaust occurred. Germany, the country of Luther’s birth and the birthplace of the Protestant reformation, and the entire Christian church should hang our heads in shame and repentance as we remember the Holocaust.

One has to wonder what Bible Luther read and how he could so blatantly curse the Jews. Were not God’s blessing upon Abraham’s descendants, and His promise to bless those who bless the Jews and to curse those who curse the Jews (Genesis 12:3) clear enough for Luther? Yet even today the Church simply ignores the raving and ranting of this Christian anti-Semite and has placed him on a pedestal and given him a place of honour in Christian history.

Many years ago while still a student at a conservative seminary I questioned Luther’s Christian faith because of his violent anti-Semitism. The response I received was a shrug and the quip, ‘but that is the nature of grace!’ The serious student of the Bible should know better. Clearly Luther’s understanding of the scriptures was faulty. Did he not read of God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants to bless them and bless those that bless them, and conversely to curse those who curse them, and ultimately that the blessing of God would flow through Israel to the world? (Genesis 12:3) Did he not read Roman chapters 9-11, where Paul writes of his love for his Jewish brothers plus offers a warning to the Gentile believers in the following verses?

That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:2-3).

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, [of] the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew... (Romans 11:1-2).

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in... As concerning the gospel, [they are] enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, [they are] beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance (Romans 11:25, 28-29).

To whom did God entrust the Word – the Law (Torah), the Prophets (N’vim), and the Writings (K’tuvim) till the coming of Christ? Was it not also to the Jews that God ordained that the Passover feast be kept? The Jews kept the Passover (Pesach) feast for nearly one thousand five hundred years until that day almost two thousand years ago when they offered the perfect Passover Lamb, Yeshua, who took away the sin of the world.

Who else but the Jews could have sacrificed Jesus as the Passover lamb? It certainly could not have been the Gentiles (Goyim), because we have no such law or feast. In doing so the Jews fulfilled the long awaited promise of God to redeem all mankind through the shed