Anti Semitism Fanned Into Flames
Adolf Hitler, one of Satan’s greatest hit men, was inspired by Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic writings. Germany had a long history of “Christian” anti-Semitism, not only from within the Roman Catholic Church, but even from within the Protestant Church. It was Martin Luther, who in his latter years turned upon the Jews with a religious fury, thus paving the way for Adolf Hitler to consummate the Reformer’s great desire for the elimination of the Jewish people. Is it any wonder that Hitler cited Martin Luther in Mein Kampf as one of the great heroes of the German people.1
Christianity did not create the Holocaust; indeed Nazism was anti-Christian, but it made it possible. Without Christian anti-Semitism, the Holocaust would have been inconceivable… . Hitler and the Nazis found in medieval Catholic anti-Jewish legislation a model for their own, and they read and reprinted Martin Luther’s virulently anti-Semitic writings. It is instructive that the Holocaust was unleashed by the only major country in Europe having approximately equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants. BOTH TRADITIONS WERE SATURATED WITH JEW-HATRED.2
At the Nuremberg trials, the infamous Nazi war criminal Julius Streicher quoted Luther’s anti-Semitic writings in defending the Nazi atrocities. Indeed, it was Luther’s work that had provided Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany with Christian justification for their murderous “final solution” for the Jews. Hitler wrote, “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the almighty Creator: by defending myself against the JEW, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”3 Even today, Martin Luther’s anti-Semitic tracts are respected by neo-Nazis. Most Jewish people have lost one or more relatives to anti-Semitism, which was fanned into flames by the writings of Martin Luther. Engraved on the memory of many holocaust survivors are the words which were written across the archways of certain death camps: “We kill you because you killed Jesus.”4 Dr. Erwin Lutzer comments, “As Gentiles, we forget that Christ is thought of as an enemy of the Jews…” 5
Harbored Hostility
The ancient Serpent, in all his diabolical cunning, had succeeded in turning Christianity upside down. He had divided the “one new man” and cursed both the Jews and the Gentiles whom Messiah had died to bless (Ephesians 2:14-16). Today, is it any wonder that the majority of Jews in the world respond in horror and dread to the name Jesus Christ? The name that is above all names to Christians has become a curse word to them, reeking with the stench of torment and death, and never to be spoken in Jewish homes.
“After nineteen centuries of Christianity, the extermination of six million Jews, among them one-and-a-half million children, carried out in cold blood in the very heart of Christian Europe, encouraged by the criminal silence of virtually all Christendom including that of an infallible Holy Father in Rome, was the natural culmination of this bankruptcy. A straight line leads from the first act of oppression against the Jews and Judaism in the fourth century to the holocaust in the twentieth.”6
Because the Serpent’s eggs hatched within Christian theology, the church became an enemy of Israel, causing the brethren of Yahshua (Jesus) to be driven far from the truth and love of their Messiah. The fullness of the Savior’s glorious presence and His promised blessings have been blocked by Christianity’s sins of omission and commission with regard to the Jews. The hands of corporate Christendom are stained with blood. The prophet Isaiah cries out: Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned Yahveh, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him [and His mandate to bless the Jews]. Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick, And the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound in it … “I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean … Cease to do evil, Learn to do good …” (Isaiah 1:4-6, 15-17)
Those who call themselves children of God must stand in the gap and repent for the multitudes of Jews killed in the name of Jesus Christ and Christianity. You and I did not sing Satan’s tune, “Kill a Jew and save your soul.” We did not march around flaming synagogues singing “Christ We Adore Thee” as the screams of the Jewish people pierced heaven’s gates and Yahveh’s heart. There were many, however, who stood aloof in shameful silence as the Jews were mercilessly slaughtered by the Nazis.
The Spirit of Truth asks us to examine our hearts. The humble will willingly acknowledge to one degree or another that they have fallen prey to ignorance, indifference, spiritual pride, hostility, and even the rejection of Messiah’s brethren. The venom of anti-Semitism must be thoroughly purged from individual hearts in order that we might be holy to our God and Savior
King David was required to make restitution for the Gibeonite blood that King Saul had shed. David was not guilty, nor was he responsible for Saul’s sin. However, the nation of Israel suffered a great famine “on account of Saul and his blood-stained house” (2Samuel 21:1 — emphasis added). In the purity of his heart, David understood that the stain of blood had to be repented for in order for the curse of famine to be reversed (see 2Samuel 21:14).
Today, Yahveh is raising up a holy remnant that will repent for the blood-stained house of Christendom who drove the Jews people away with whips of hate and violence. Through prayer and repentance, this humble remnant will help reverse the biblical curse incurred by a form of religion that has not blessed Abraham’s descendants. The spiritual famine will end, and a banqueting table will be set for those who weep over the slain of Jacob (see Jeremiah 9:1) and repent for the blood-stained house of historical Christianity.
Do Not Stick Your Finger in His Eye
The prophet Zechariah proclaimed: “for he who touches you [Israel], touches the apple [pupil] of His eye. For behold, I will wave My hand over them, so that they will be plunder …” (Zechariah 2:8-9). Serpents don’t have fingers, but men do. Yahveh is posting His warning: Do not stick your finger in My eye! Yahveh is so identified with His people Israel that their pain is His pain. According to Isaiah, “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9). If we say that we love Him, we too will grieve with Him in all His pain.
Concerning His Jewish brethren, Messiah emphatically said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). He explained that nations and peoples will one day be judged—separated as sheep from goats to receive eternal blessings or curses. Their fate will ultimately be determined by their obedience to the Almighty’s sovereign promise to Abraham as recorded in Genesis 12:3.
Scripture reminds us that “Yahveh is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19).
References
1 Hal Lindsey, The Road to Holocaust (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), p. 5.
2 Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, Why the Jews? The Reason for Anti-Semitism (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 104.
3 Adolf Hitler (trans. by Ralph Manheim), Mein Kampf (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971), p. 65, emphasis added.
4 Sid Roth, Time Is Running Short (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1990), p. 31.
5 Erwin W. Lutzer, Hitler’s Cross (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996), p. 84.
6 Michael L. Brown, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1992), p. 91