Heart-to-Heart

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”  1 Corinthians 9:19-23


I am not Jewish.  Although this should be obvious from the title of this blog, I felt it should be stated once again.  I say this because the opinions that are stated in this blog need to be read as my opinions.  These are not the opinions of Jewish people or even Messianic Jewish people.  They are my opinions only.  Others may chose to agree or disagree, in whole or in part with anything I have to say.


I wanted to share with you some of the tragedies that have happened throughout history to the Jewish people, but I found that in my presentation of these tragedies I have become too emotionally attached. Therefore, I decided it would be best to share some links with from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.  I found their website to be very concise and informative.


The reason I want to share these tragedies is not to suggest that Jewish people resent Christians as individuals.  They do not.  But I feel many resent the religion of Christianity, to the point where they do not wish to be associated with this religion, due to the multitude of tragedies done in the name of our Savior.  Perhaps, if it was one or two incidents in the last two thousand years, these incidents could be labeled as merely the political agenda of one or two corrupt individuals in history, but as you will see from these links, antisemitism has been a continual and ongoing part of the “Christian” world.  

I put Christian in quotes because I need to define what I mean by the term Christian.  Judaism is not only defined by one’s religion, but by one’s ethnicity.  Similarly, many people have considered themselves “Christian” if their parents were “Christian” or even if they celebrate the secular versions of Christmas and Easter.


I will give an example.  In 1933 the catholic church, in fear of the spread of communism, made an agreement with Hitler not to get involved in his politics, and in return he would leave the catholic church alone.  This agreement was broken by Hitler in 1937 when he began arresting catholic priests.  The protestant church, on the other hand, was split over their views of Hitler. Ludwig Muller, who believed any church member with Jewish ancestry should be expelled, became the “Reich Bishop” or leader of the new Reich Church with the swastika as its symbol and Mein Kampf as its bible. Martin Niemoller, on the other hand, lead a group that called themselves “confessing Christians,” which opposed Hitler and Muller’s beliefs.  Niemoller was arrested by the Gestapo and put in solitary confinement at a concentration camp for 7 years while many other confessing Christians suffered similar fates.


While most of us associate with the catholic or confessing Christians who were persecuted in Nazi Germany, the world also recognizes the Reich Church or German Church, which the majority of Germans belonged to, perhaps in fear of persecution, as being part of Christianity.  I mention this only to share that the world sees all of these people who call themselves Christians, as Christians (and why shouldn’t they), even if a lot of us view many of these so-called Christians as Christians in name only.    


Although the history of the “church” does not affect individual relationships (hopefully if you are reading this blog you know someone who is Jewish who understands you, as a christian, are not anti-Semitic), it does affect how Jews view Christianity as a religion.  For those of us in Jewish ministry, or for anyone who wants to share the Gospel with a Jewish friend, we need to understand the history of antisemitism in the church in order to understand how to share our faith in a meaningful way. 


For those of you who do not have time to read the following links, I want to share a quote from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance’s article titled “Christian Apology for the Crusades:”

Among many Jews and Muslims, the term crusade evokes visions of genocide, mass murder, and mass extermination of innocent people. However, among many Christians it has become a positive term, frequently used to refer to mass rallies and campaigns to win converts - as in the Billy Graham Crusades. Out of respect for the victims of the "first holocaust [12,000 Jews in the Rhine Valley alone were killed as the first Crusade passed through]" we recommend that the term be only used to refer to the wars of the Middle Ages.

Here are the links to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance:

• Anti-Judaism: 70 to 1200 CE
• Christian Apology for the Crusades
• Anti-Judaism: 1201 to 1800 CE
• Anti-semitism: Racially-based persecution of the Jews: 1800 to 1946

Recent Articles on Antisemitism:

• France sees ‘shocking surge’ in anti-Semitic violence
• Poland’s Jews watch and wait
• Neo-Nazis praise German mayor for Israel boycott
• Anti-Semitism climbs worldwide