By Ted Belman Dec 26/14
The Holocaust didn’t occur because of Hitler but because of the Church. Hitler merely built upon the policies of the Church and drove them to their logical conclusion.
Of course I am familiar with the idea that but for Christianity, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened, but wasn’t fully aware of the debt owed by Hitler to precedents set by the Church for the details of his policies, including the final solution.
R. Hilberg’s classic The Destruction of European Jews provides the link. Hilberg begins his introduction with these words:
The German destruction of the European Jews was a tour de force; the Jewish collapse under the German assault was a manifestation of failure. Both of these phenomena were the final product of an earlier age.
Anti-Jewish policies and anti-Jewish actions did not have their beginning in 1933. For many centuries, and in many countries, the Jews have been victims of destructive action. What was the object of these activities? What were the aims of those who persisted in anti-Jewish deeds? Throughout Western history, three consecutive policies have been applied against Jewry in its dispersion.
The policies referred to included 1) conversion, 2) expulsion and 3) extermination. The first and second were often accompanied by the threat of execution; all of which were sanctioned by the Church.
Hilberg explains:
The first anti-Jewish policy started in the fourth century after Christ in Rome. In the early 300’s, during the reign of Constantine, the Christian Church gained power in Rome, and Christianity became the state religion. From this period, the state carried out Church policy. For the next twelve centuries, the Catholic Church prescribed the measures that were to be taken with respect to the Jews. Unlike the pre-Christian Romans, who claimed no monopoly on religion and faith, the Christian Church insisted upon acceptance of Christian doctrine.
For an understanding of Christian policy toward Jewry, it is essential to realize that the Church pursued conversion not so much for the sake of aggrandizing its power (the Jews have always been few in number), but because of the conviction that it was the duty of true believers to save unbelievers from the doom of eternal hellfire. Zealousness in the pursuit of conversion was an indication of the depth of faith. The Christian religion was not one of many religions, like other religions. It was the true religion, the only religion. Those who were not in its fold were either ignorant or in error.
The Jews could not accept Christianity.
The same might be said of Islam, though it allowed Jews and Christians, “peoples of the book”, to be dhimmis and pay a tax, Jizya”, for the privilege. The Church also imposed a similar tax on Jews.
In the very early stages of the Christian faith, many Jews regarded Christians as members of a Jewish sect. The first Christians, after all, still observed the Jewish law. They had merely added a few non-essential practices, such as baptism, to their religious life. But this view was changed abruptly when Christ was elevated to godhood. The Jews have only one G-d. That G-d is indivisible. He is a jealous G-d and admits of no other G-ds. He is not Christ, and Christ is not He. Christianity and Judaism have since been irreconcilable. An acceptance of Christianity has since signified an abandonment of Judaism.
With patience and persistence, the Church attempted to convert obstinate Jewry, and for twelve hundred years, the theological argument was fought without interruption. The Jews were not convinced. Gradually the Church began to back its words with force. The Papacy did not permit pressure to be put on individual Jews; Rome never permitted forceful conversions.
However, the clergy did use pressure on the whole. Step by step, but with ever widening effect, the Church adopted “defensive” measures against its passive victims. Christians were “protected” from the “harmful” consequences of intercourse with Jews by rigid laws against intermarriage, by prohibitions of discussions about religious issues, by laws against domicile in common abodes. The Church “protected” its Christians from the “harmful” Jewish teachings by burning the Talmud and by barring Jews from public office.
And yet it is the Jews who are always attacked for their separateness.
The clergy was not sure of its success – hence the widespread practice, in the Middle Ages, of identifying proselytes as former Jews, hence the inquisition of new Christians suspected of heresy, hence the issuance in Spain of certificates of “purity” (limpieza) signifying purely Christian ancestry, and the specification of half new Christians, quarter new Christians, one-eighth new Christians, etc.
Hitler’s racial purity laws found their antecedent and precedent in these laws. And so did his order that Jews identify themselves by wearing a yellow Star of David.
Efforts to convert the Jews were spectacularly unsucessful, even aided by all the restrictions placed on the Jews.
Too much had been invested in twelve hundred years of conversion policy. Too little had been gained. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the Jews of England, France, Germany, Spain, Bohemia and Italy were presented with ultimatums which gave them no choice but one: conversion or expulsion.
In 1542 Martin Luther rejected the authority of Rome and started the Lutheran Church. He, too, hated the Jews. He and others who broke away from Rome became known as Protestants. There followed hundreds of years of war between Catholics and Protestants.
At the end of the Eighteenth Century, the French Revolution took place, a by-product of which was the liberation of the French Jews, who thereafter enjoyed equal rights. The armies of the revolution, headed by Napoleon, spread the values of “liberte, fraternite and egalite” to the east, including in Germany and Italy. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Bourbons in France kept the liberating legislation, but the monarchs in Germany and Italy cancelled it. Nevertheless, Jews embraced the belief, after a taste of liberation, that full equality was the inevitable corollary of the emerging secular-political order throughout Europe. In Germany, Reform Judaism was founded and in Russia and Poland, Jews flocked to the Communist banner.
But many segments of society remained deeply anti-Semitic, leaving many Jews to conclude that the promise of “liberte, fraternite and egalite” was a pipe dream even though the society was now secular. And so was born the the movement for the Auto-Emancipation of the Jews, which became known as Zionism. Jews had to reconstitute themselves as a nation in their own land.
In Christian Europe, the Jews had only to convert to be accepted. The Christians were against the practise of Judaism. In secular Europe, the Jews themselves were rejected as a race. Thus, conversion was not open to them. But expulsion or emigration was still available. Thus millions of Jews in the Pale of Settlement beginning in 1880 emigrated well into the nineteen thirties. Hitler searched in vain for a country to which to expel Germany’s Jews, but no one wanted them. In 1942 he instituted the final solution, extermination.
R. Hilberg in his masterful study, argues:
if we analyze that singular massive upheaval, we discover that most of what happened in those 12 years, 1933 to 1945, had already happened before. The Nazi destruction process did not come out of a void, it was the culmination of a cyclical trend beginning in the Fourth Century in Rome.
During the conversion era, the Church said, “you have no right to live among us as Jews”. Then in the segregation/expulsion process, “you have no right to live among us” and finally in the extermination process, “you have no right to live”.
These progressively more drastic goals brought in their wake a slow and steady growth of anti Jewish action and anti-Jewish thinking…. The German Nazis then, did not discard the past, they built upon it. They did not begin a development, they completed it. In the deep recesses of anti-Jewish history we shall find many of the administrative and psychological tools with which the Nazis implemented their destruction process. In the hollows of the past we shall also discover the roots of the characteristic Jewish response to an outside attack.
To better understand this statement, Hilberg presents a table of Canonical Law restricting the Jews beginning in the Fourth Century opposite which he places similar Nazi measures.
Then writes:
No summation of Canonical Law can be as revealing as a description of the Rome ghetto, maintained by the Papal State until the occupation of the city by the Royal Italian Army in 1870. A German journalist who visited the city in its closing days, published such an account:
“To rent any house or business establishment outside the ghetto boundaries, the Jews needed the permission of Cardinal Vicar. Acquisition of real estate outside the ghetto was prohibited. Trade or industrial products or goods were prohibited. Higher schooling was prohibited.. The professions of lawyer, druggist, notary, painter and architect were prohibited. A Jew could be a doctor provided he confined his practice to Jewish patients. No Jew could hold office. Jews were required to pay taxes like everyone else and, in addition, the following: 1) A yearly stipend for the upkeep of the Catholic officials who supervised the Ghetto Finance Administration and the Jewish Community Organization, 2) A yearly sum of 5250 lira for Casa Pia for missionary work among Jews, 3) A yearly sum of 5250 lira to the Cloister of the Converted for the same purpose. In return the Papal State expended a yearly sum of 1500 lira for welfare work. But no state money was paid for education or the care of the sick.”
Hiberg also provided a table of Pre-Nazi and Nazi Anti-Jewish Measures. As can be seen, the destructive process was at work in Germany long before the Nazis came to power.
But all this in no way is meant to excuse Hitler.
After the Holocaust, the manifestations of antisemitism became very subdued. It was not “cool” to express such feelings in any way. Unfortunately, the haters began expressing the antisemitism as anti-Zionism. These expression are now commonplace and the hatred of Israel is growing exponentially. As a result, the movement to exterminate Israel has become very strong.
But we Jews will survive that too.
***
ADDENDUM 2022
”Ever since Rome adopted Christianity in informally 325 AD and formerly in 381 AD,” the Church vilified the Jews. Christians, for centuries, hated or feared the Jews culminating in the holocaust. There was a little respite during the Enlightenment.. Hitler came along and stoked the fire of hatred using the big lie as a major tool. It was easy to do because any civility that existed was skin deep only, thanks to the Church.
“Mohammed first tried to win the Jews to his side in the 7th Century and modeled his religion on the Hebrew bible.. When the Jews rejected him, he turned on the Jews and rejected them. Then followed 1500 years of Islamic Dhimmitude for the Jews to the present day…Remember this was a time in which the Muslims conquered and converted a huge part of the East. Even so the Jews were better off living among the Muslims then they were living among the Christians.. Under the Muslims, the Jews were considered people of the book and were relegated to dhimmi status but not killed or forced to convert in the main..
“This changed in the 20th Century after the Balfour Declaration.. The Jews reasserted themselves as Jews and not as Dhimmis and this outraged the Muslims.. They wanted us to remain as Dhimmis.
“In 1919 Britain created the position of The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem as the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy places, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“In 1921, , Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was appointed as the Grand Mufti. Unfortunately, he aligned himself with Hitler, and wanted to be in charge of the final solution in the Arab world. And so began the Arab embrace of Jew hatred.
“The PA stoked the fires of antisemitism with the big lie just as Hitler did.. Thus the PA induced propaganda war against the Jews/Israel has led to an exponential rise in antisemitism and Jew-hatred.
“So the cause of much antisemitism over the millennium was .various actors who fanned the flames in order to achieve victory over the Jews. But it all started with the Jew-Hatred of the Church.
TANNA-
It is because I hate to see such talent and sincerity such devotion, wasted on a “dream” a myth, a fiction concocted by lunatics, which has caused more catastrophes and slaughters in our world that any other event, or even series of events. And which exists even to this day, causing hatred against innocent beings.
Edgar, Why do you few sorry for me?
@Michael 😀 I didn’t understand a word of that. Can you say it simply? Or as the song goes, “Say it in Broken English”
Hi, Sebastien.
Yea — “resemble”, “look like”, etc. like King David, saying,
Pss. 22: [6] But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Are you better than that? Or do you resemble him? I think I do. I dissected a worm in HS Biology (howbeit an earthworm — David spoke of a maggot, which has a similar structure). Let’s check it out:
https://imgs.search.brave.com/s85JcHouV9q3pG1C6lUB1m5JOT6ei6nFEd7hePxYM-s/rs:fit:1140:225:1/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly90c2Uz/Lm1tLmJpbmcubmV0/L3RoP2lkPU9JUC5z/aFB6U1lWZlBEdnZS/Tm15akdGOW93SGFE/RiZwaWQ9QXBp
Let’s see…
1. Brain. I think I have one (punny, right?)
2. Mouth. Oh, yes, I have one of them too.
3. Pharynx . Yes — it’s behind my tongue
4. Hearts. Oops, I only have one; Wormie has two. Do you have two? Are you as good as a worm?
5. Esophagus. Yes. Can you swallow that?
6. Crop and Gizzard. I don’t have any — but I do have a stomach and dodenum, plus some miscellania like a liver, etc.
7. Intestine, etc. Check.
Yep — we’re pretty much like earthworms. Very useful critters — They till the soil, just like farmers: very useful. Then they die. RIP
Do you till the soil too? I used to build tractors, in my younger days.
There you have it: “Resemble”
@Michael Resemble?
Schutzer
Let me guess… was he Trotsky? Do you speak of yourself? I am certainly “christian”, seeing that I believe the whole Bible. Mythical? You’ve got me wrong! I’ve read a lot of myth, much of it right here on Israpundit; but I don’t believe a word of it. I worship the God of Israel. Is He a myth? I never knew that! He know lots of Jews, too — Moses, James, Jude, Cephas, Paul, and of course His chosen, unique son, very much alive, Jesus Christ. FYI
Did you resemble that remark?
@Michael
😀
Uhh, speak for yourself, Jack.
Christianity is the source and cause of communism as well. It’s just a completely godless version of it. Christians believe in a mythical dead-jew-god, not in God himself.
Islam is actually honest Christianity, where they admit their goal of killing everyone to bring their machdi or something . . .
Hi, Edgar
“…discussed ad nauseam…”
Indeed. I will only say, that RAMBAM said Moses was a unique prophet, above all others; yet Moses himself said that another “like him” would come, whom we should heed. Through Moses, we have the Law; and trough Messiah, we have redemption. As Paul said,
Romans 5:
[12] Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
[13] (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
[14] Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
[15] But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Many terms in the Bible were from the business world. When Jesus was about to die on the cross, he said, “It is finished” — a term which literally meant, “It is paid in full”. God made a deal with us, for as many as would sign on. He gave us eternal life, and made us joint heirs of everything He has. In exchange, we give him our essentially worthless lives, in eternal service to Him. Both parties put up consideration: We give our souls, which are precious to us; and He gives His son, who is precious to Him. We sign the agreement with our faith, and our obligations are “paid in full”. Both parties must agree, or there is no deal..
MICHAEL-
Thank you for your response.
\
BUT….those words of Moses were spoken say, around 1500 B.C.E. and between then and say about 37 C.E. there were dozens of Prophets. The test as to whether they were true prophets from G-D was to be if what they prophesied came about or not.
Well, any fool can read of the many dozens of times that the words of one or other of the prophets who emerged did or did not happen.
But since the time of the purported Jesus, nearly all his NT reported prophesies, did NOT eventuate.. Like the “New Jerusalem descending from heaven” to quote one of the crazier ones.
None of the quoted qualities of a coming Moshiach were shown by Jesus, except by blatant mistranslation. Or iike the Testimonium Flavianum” forged by Eusebius., which was completely unknown to the immediately preceding famous Church historian Origen…!!
There are well researched books which specifically quote the differences between Judaism and Christianity , some of which are based on tee different prophesies of Jesus which did NOT happen, therefore he was not a prophet, and must be disregarded.
In conclusion,, Deuteronomy. was the Book which gave the Laws to be observed for all of time to come. And the mention of “a prophet like me” was just a reassurance that there would be continuity, and had NO specific reference to any single figure. . Prophets popped out of the woodwork in times of need. They were either true or not. All that time is past and we are now in an age which does not live according to ecstatic utterances of 2500 years ago.
This has been discussed ad nauseam for nearly 2000 years and there is nothing which was neglected.
P.S . I MUST say that. I feel sorry for Tanna.
If you want to understand something about YHVH and his Son, regardless of if it being the biblical Son(Israel) or the Christian son Yeshua. You have to spend Hours in the study of the bible. The question’s we ask are indicators of where one is at in their progression in their faith(walk with God). — DO NOT READ IT – THAT WILL ONLY SHOW YOUR IGNORANCE. And not only God, if you want to understand something about one’s self, you can find it in the greatest book ever written.
Study it… study it……. and study it some more. spend a lifetime, thousands and thousands it not tens of thousands of hours. we humans eat 2 – 4 times a day. We need the bread of Torah / Bible more then we need food. Once a week to shul or Sunday school does not cut it. How do I know…….. it’s obvious Look at the shape of the world!
A life spent in not seeking out one’s creator and drawing close to God is a wasted life. That is the greatest sin, one in which we all participate in way to often.
Edgar
Deuteronomy 18:
[15] The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
John 9:
[26] Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
[27] He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
[28] Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
[29] We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
[30] The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
[31] Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
[32] Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
[33] If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
[34] They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
[35] Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
[36] He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
[37] And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
[38] And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
[39] And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
[40] And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
[41] Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
MICHAEL-
Tell us please, how “we have all sinned”, and if there are any different levels of sinning….? How does a baby sin.???? Please instruct us. It seems impossible and incredible to believe and I for one do NOT believe in the Adam “sin” myth. It’s just a nice story for young children, to explain why people die,- but adults (most of us) know that the reasons are physiological …
Oh yes, and also explain what you mean by “the redemption price” that is a very obscure comment with no reason.
Jackie Mason, the Orthodox Rabbi turned comedian once quipped that….”the sin of eating Chometz on Pesach is as bad as the sin of adultery…I’ve tried them both, and I just CAN’T see the comparison”….
It’s odd but consistent that most religions begin with some “test” .
Hi, Kelleigh. You said,
Pardon my omission!
Jesus came to die and willingly gave His life.
This is true; but of course, there is a back story: Adam sinned; and his sin barred him from eternal life. We also have all sinned, deserve an equally grievous punishment and, like Adam, are unable to reverse God’s judgment — except someone acceptable to God should pay the redemption price. That price is life for life, life of the worthy for life of the unworthy.
Yes, Jesus came to die in our place; but if we neglect this salvation by unbelief, it does us no good: We suffer eternal damnation, because we have rejected Hashem, and counted his gracious provision of redemption as a vile thing.
MICHAEL-
Kicked out by the Exclusive Darbyites…well it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. I really mean this. I know all about them, since my wife converted from them to Judaism via Satmar. She told me all the crazy things they do, like divorcing their wives if they don’t believe exactly as they do. They actually cry real tears when they talk of “the blood of the lamb”. I’ve seen this myself, a whole “congregation” crying as if heart-broken.
I’ve always known that you were crazy, but “harmless” crazy. I didn’t know that you were THAT off-kilter.
So all that NT crap that you spew all over this site at little and mostly no pretext at all, comes straight from them?. They (you?) even have their own version of the NT. I actually have one, and boy oh boy, MY ears are still burning. I never knew that I was 2100 years old, (although I was once reminded by an Irish Catholic that I “killed god”, that I “killed our lord”)
Actually, you are an anomaly. You are definitely NOT an anti-Semite, whilst the Exclusive lunatics certainly are. They regard every spurious word in the NT, (and it’s 90% composed of lies) as Torah Emet.
This was in a period when Jews as a nation were fighting the Romans
The Christian lobby are the GREATEST LIARS about a whole historical era
Either the truth or frankly stfu
Sorry, y’all, but the Messiah said, “…because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. John 10:17-18
For me that finishes it. It doesn’t matter who was there or who decided he should die. It was planned and He knew it…He willingly gave His life. So for anyone to tell people that old filthy libel that “the Jews killed Jesus,” is a lie. And of course the Jew haters always forget about the Romans who were gentiles.
When you fail to tell people that Jesus came to die and willingly gave His life, you feed into the filth of Jewish hatred. Our creator loves His people Israel. He made it plain in the first portion of the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant when He stated, “I will bless those who bless her, and curse those who curse her, and all the world will be blessed by her.” Gen. 12:1-3
In Deuteronomy 7:7-8 Adonai states, “I didn’t love you because you are special. You are special because I love you.”
SEBASTIEN-
Yes Luther advocated genocide of the Jews after being repulsed by them. And the Catholics didn’t…-as a policy….. but well……here and there and everywhere, they massacred Jews, without needing a policy of non genocide.
One of their mashuggena doctrines (from the NT?) is that a specially selected (by their god) 444,000 ( or maybe 144,000) Jews must be saved who will automatically convert, to welcome the return of their fake god. So….complete genocide, no.
Michael will know all about it and may set us straight….MICHAEL..where are you when we need you.
kelliegh@
I have to agreed with Mr. Michael on this. One should not paint to often with a broad brush, you get more paint on you then you will the fence.
We humans like group identity. If we put people in a box then we can better understand them, at least we think so. But, in reality a few hard heads or extremist do not ever speak for the group they are associated with. Think on this: recently in America an actor pulled the trigger on a gun during the filming of a movie. Guess who all gets charged in the death. The one who pulled the trigger and the one who gave him the gun and I have not heard who loaded that gun, which cause the dead of another person.
The book of John tells us that Jesus/Yeshua/Joshua laid down his life willing. The book of Genesis tells us that Isaac gave Yeshua the ideal.
Hi, Sebastien. You said,
“Luther, you may recall, advocated genocide against the Jews. The Catholic Church never went that far.”
Luther indeed went off the deep end; he was quite prejudiced. To his credit, he stood with his convictions concerning the supreme authority of the scriptures, and “spoke truth to power”. Without actually intending to do so, he opened the floodgates for freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Actually, there were others, such as Hus and Wycliffe, who similarly defended the Bible against its abusers (intentionally so or otherwise). Luther succeeded where they failed, because he was protected by the Elector of Saxony; but even more so, because by the time he made his defense, the Bible had become widely distributed.
Hello, Kelleigh.
I came back on board here, to comment on your claim that
“Michael, the people gathered at the crucifixion of Christ were a small portion of Jews. History shows that the majority did not want Him crucified”, and “Tanna, no Jews killed Jesus.”
Unlike Ted, who picks and chooses what to believe in the NT, and others here who reject the books altogether, you took the Christian books at face value. You went on to say, “If you wish to blame the Jews, then you are buying into one of the filthy lies of anti-Semitism.”
You may be right in this last statement, and you may be wrong. I suppose it boils down to what you call “the Jews”. I sat under a Conservative rabbi several years ago, who said today’s Jews are descendents of the Pharisees. This is a valid statement, since modern Judaism has its roots in the shul at Yavneh; and a group of Pharisees were prominent there. The Jewish leaders who stirred up the crowd to demand Jesus’ execution also included leading Pharisees. Of course, they did not include ALL the Pharisees, for it is written,
Luke 23
[50] And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just:
[51] (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
[52] This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
You also quoted the NT, to support your assertions:
“If you venture into the New Testament, Jesus says He lays down His life willingly. John 10:15. Sin was the reason, not the Jewish people. As well, historically it is known that the majority of Jewish people did not want Jesus crucified as it would make Him a martyr to the people.”
Jesus laid his life down willingly, in that he did not assent to the false charges laid against him. That doesn’t negate the fact that the Jewish leaders intentionally delivered him to the Romans to be killed:
Luke.23
[1] And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him unto Pilate.
[2] And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.
Read my lips here:
The Jewish people did not kill Jesus, any more than the German people killed the Jews.
If you believe the one, then you also believe the other. I personally believe neither, in the absolute sense. The Jewish mob consented to killing Jesus, and the German mob consented to killing the Jews.
Hi, John.
I have. A few years ago, I availed myself of the open mike (It was their custom to provide such), to express my gratitude to God for Donald Trump, who had kept his promise and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s “eternal capital”. One of the church elders immediately followed me on the mike, and went into a half-hour tirade about how “The Jews are our enemies!” Later that day, I emailed him to say I would like to discuss the matter with him. He responded by summarily banning me from speaking in the church. This was an “independent” congregation with roots in the “Exclusive Plymouth Brethren”.
Ted,
If I said the sky was blue, and you said it was chartreusse, I imagine you would also say I was not stating facts. What’s going on in your head, about the veracity of the best-selling nonfiction book of all history, is not objective reality. At any rate, I was merely responding to Kayleigh’s many groundless assertions.
@Ted Yes, many American evangelicals are pro-Israel and yes, the Catholic Church initiated the long history of antisemitism in Christianity but Hitler, though raised as a Catholic, disliked the Catholic Church and explicitly regarded himself as Luther’s heir. Luther, you may recall, advocated genocide against the Jews. The Catholic Church never went that far.
@Galt
When I write “Church” I mean the Catholic Church. Though Luther was very much an antisemite and he should also be condemned. As for the evangelicals, they are friends of Israel and Jews. I am a big fan of Rev Hagee.
But some Protestant Churches are antisemitic particularly the United Church.
I haven’t studied this so can’t be more exact.
A better litmus test to deciding whether other churches are antisemitic is not what they say about Jews but what they say about Israel.
Well, maybe the European Churches. I am an American and have been to Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran and Christian Science churches in many states and I have never, ever heard a disparaging word about Jews. Ever.
I have been to Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI because my Rhode Island Christian School took me there every year for 4 years to teach about religious freedom and tolerance. My father’s partner in a large NYC Charity was Jewish so I was brought up in a family that was totally accepting of Jews.
So, to me European Churches may be guilty but not American churches. Mussolini and Hitler detested Christianity and Hitler personally favored Islam for the German people. Read “Table Talk.”
By the way, I’m reading Bibi Netanyahu’s new Bio right now and his father had no problem bringing up his 3 boys in America. I went to the same American College as Gold Meir, another Israeli PM.
Lastly, my ancestors fled Europe due to religious prosecution in the 17th century same as Jews did 200 years later. American Christians and Jews are very similar in that regard.
Anyway, my two cents.
@Michael.
Quoting from the gospels is not “giving the facts.” Some consider the lies in the gospels to be “filthy lies” which are responsible for the massacre of millions of Jews.
“The Historical Jesus.”
Kelliegh,
I’m just giving the facts, ma’am. BTW, I do not support any “filthy lies”; you’re projecting.
Michael, the people gathered at the crucifixion of Christ were a small portion of Jews. History shows that the majority did not want Him crucified. So, you buy into the filthy libel that the Jews killed Jesus? Read John 10:18. Jesus says himself, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to pick it up again.” The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus came to die for sin. No one took His life from Him, He willingly gave it. To blame any group of people as though they “killed” Jesus is patently false according to Jesus Himself. If you wish to blame the Jews, then you are buying into one of the filthy lies of anti-Semitism.
“Hitler was born to a practicing Catholic mother, Klara Hitler, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church; his father was a free-thinker and skeptical of the Catholic Church…
“In a speech in the early years of his rule, Hitler declared himself “Not a Catholic, but a German Christian”.[17][18][19][20][21] The German Christians were a Protestant group that supported Nazi Ideology.[22] Hitler and the Nazi party also promoted “nondenominational”[23] positive Christianity,[24] a movement which rejected most traditional Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus, as well as Jewish elements such as the Old Testament.[25][26] In one widely quoted remark, he described Jesus as an “Aryan fighter” who struggled against “the power and pretensions of the corrupt Pharisees”[27] and Jewish materialism.[28] Hitler demonstrated a preference for Protestantism[29][page needed] and Lutheranism,[30] stating, “Through me the Evangelical Protestant Church could become the established church, as in England”[31] and that the “great reformer” Martin Luther[32] “has the merit of rising against the Pope and the Catholic Church”.[33]…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism
Kelleigh, you are not well-versed in the New Testament.
Mark 15:
[13] And they cried out again, Crucify him.
[14] Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.
[15] And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
[16] And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.
[17] And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,
[18] And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!
[19] And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.
[20] And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
Tanna, no Jews killed Jesus. None. If you venture into the New Testament, Jesus says He lays down His life willingly. John 10:15. Sin was the reason, not the Jewish people. As well, historically it is known that the majority of Jewish people did not want Jesus crucified as it would make Him a martyr to the people.
Fools use this old libel and still claim they are “Christians.” They’ve cursed themselves according to the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant and Gen. 12:1-3.
This article is actually spot on. But those who persecuted and murdered the Jewish people were false doctrine Christians who believed that the church had replaced Israel in the Creator’s eyes. This belief is wholly and completely false. Israel is the Lord’s wife, and even when she is in disobedience, the day will come with a remarriage even stronger than today. What Christian church isn’t in error? Only a couple, and they have their problems.
Gentiles or Greeks, have never been called the wife of Jehovah.
The Wife of Jehovah
The relationship of Israel as the wife of Jehovah is viewed throughout the Scriptures in various ways and facets. Essentially, this relationship can be broken down into six distinct stages which the relationship undergoes. Four of these stages are history. We are now living in the fifth stage of the relationship between Israel and God. The sixth stage is the future. That future holds the final and completed promises to Israel.
The book of Deuteronomy seems to be merely a repetition of what Moses had written earlier in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Deuteronomy actually means “repetition” or “a second time around.” But the entire format of the Book of Deuteronomy is that of both an ancient treaty and an ancient marriage contract. What Moses does in Deuteronomy is to take all the various facets of the three earlier books and present them in the form of an ancient marriage contract. In Deuteronomy, we find the marriage contract signed between Israel and God—where Israel becomes the wife of Jehovah.Deuteronomy 5:1-3, 6:10-15, 7:6-11
The prophets always looked at this covenant relationship as a marriage contract, and one example is found in Ezekiel 16:8, the words of Ezekiel being the words describing the wedding night.
Israel may wander and stray, she may go against the statutes the Lord gave, but in the end there will be a greater remarriage and restored blessings. Ezekiel 16:60-63 and Isaiah 54:1-8.
Jeremiah 3:14 makes it clear. “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”
The Lord loves His Wife, Israel.
I’m a little late to the party, but it seems to me that the Jew hates the christian because someone came wearing a cross and Badley mistreated them. the christian hates the Jew because some Jew 2000 years ago was involved in the death of their savior. But, according to their on theology they should be thinking the Jew for killing him, otherwise they would all be going to hell. Think of it like this: Jacob represents the Jew and his brother Esau represents the christians. Its time for the family / sibling rivalry be put to bed and the brothers stand together regardless of their differences. The Ammonite, Moabite and Amalek are still out there along with the Jealous Ishamel.
It seems that you have overlooked the reasons why we celebrate Chanukkah and Pesach. It all started a millennium and a half before the scurch.
@Ted
Very nice addendum. I would never have been so bold to have changed this article, but you have made it even more significant than it was originally. Well done!
@Liz44
I think it important to “never forget”. A knowledge of history underscores how important and courageous the Christians you refer to, are to embrace the Jews and Israel.
Thank you for reminding us of the facts you set out.
@Peloni
Thank you for your generous comment.
I amended my earlier comment and added it as an addendum to the article. Please read it.
@Ted
Thank you for reposting this as well as your briefer comment yesterday on another thread relating back to the same topic of antisemitism. I believe that this is one of your most profound articles, to be honest, which places it on a high bar indeed.
It is somewhat disturbing that the final paragraph is becoming somewhat outdated as antisemitism is now becoming unmasked from anti-Zionism, and is once again becoming ‘cool’ again as can be seen with the influential Kanye taking to use it to fill his need of self importance while deeming his Jew-hatred as being too relevant to not be included in mainstream speech, even as antisemitic attacks are rising every year. This is a sad and disturbing context of our current age, but as you wisely noted, we will survive this too.
Yes, the Church has a lamentable history of antisemitism, as does Islam today. But the difference is that the last three Popes have worked hard to apologize for their sinful past and to establish good relations with the Jewish people and Israel. Pope Francis not so much the latter, but then he’s a Marxist and, to many Catholics, not a true Pope at all. And Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have made it very clear through their writings and their personal examples that antisemitism is a grave sin and must not be tolerated. Other Christian churches have also been great supports of the Jews and of Zionism. I think it is damaging to those good relations that now exist to harp on about the way that past church leaders encouraged antisemitism. What is the point of doing so? We – Christians and Jews alike – need to focus on increasing our efforts at ending antisemitism wherever it is found (today it’s mainly an Islamic problem), and on cementing the good relations that now exist between our two faiths. I am not sure why you publish these anti-Christian articles, Ted. I cannot see any good coming from it, and it ignores the many Christians who are fervent Zionists today and who love the Jewish people.
I think that by continuing to focus on the “Christian” component of anti-semitism, we miss the bigger picture, especially in today’s “post-christian” culture. The bigger picture, of course, is that anti-semitism is everywhere and eminates from all quarters. We need to focus on what is, rather than on what was.
Sadly, it has to be told that, indeed, the Judeophobic attack upon the Jewish faith and Jewish people emanates from the Gospels and the early Church fathers.
We must look at the venomous writings of Paul and of the Gospel writers, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
In their words you will find horrible calumnies against the Jewish people which have poisoned the minds of generations of Christians up until the present day.
If the Gospels have not wrought enough misery and death to Jews for 2,000 years, then the appalling writings and actions of early Church Fathers, Eusebius, Ambrose, John Chrysostom and Jerome cemented the infernal Christianhatred towards Judaism and the Jews.
Even the “saintly” Augustine delivered a particularly vile anti-Jewish polemic in his Tractatus Adversus Judeos.
Lte’s not forget the Mufti of Palestine’s involvement. Hitler was more about containment before that piece of sewage injected himself into the process.
@ TED-
He/she not only avoids answering your questions, he/she, totally ignores mine, which are as pertinent as yours, I believe. and more of them. Quite offensive and purposely degrading. …Not a gentleman/lady………!!!
He/she, is one of those people who makes dogmatic and in this case, unreliable statements, then ignores any critical counter-queries. Ego…??
@ejm
You avoided answering my question.
I believe there are true Christians in most denominations.
But only a very small minority.
Only those who believe and obey are actually Christian.
Please take time to read the link.
Yep
And we have been butchered by the millions.
Read the link, it’s a fact
@Edgar G.
You are very welcome.
Thanks, READER..!!