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Anti-Semitic protestor in Berlin (Boris Niehaus)

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Notice the following:

‘Frightening’: German Hatred of Jews Rises 40% …

June 29, 2022

A study released on Tuesday found a 40% increase in Jew-hatred in Germany in 2021, a rise the German government’s commissioner to combat antisemitism referred to as “frightening.”

The Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), a German organization that monitors antisemitism in Germany, published the study, which revealed an outbreak of 2,738 incidents of antisemitism in Germany in 2021, averaging over seven per day in the country. Of these incidents, 63 were reportedly cases of “extreme violence.”

In contrast, 2020 saw 1,957 cases of Jew-hatred reported marking a 40% increase within the span of a single year. …

Looking Biblically at Antisemitism

The irrationality with which many have despised the Jews is often puzzling to those who may be unfamiliar with God’s Word. Why has antisemitism flourished throughout history? Why are unsubstantiated and wicked accusations about Israel and the Jewish people often quickly accepted?

This madness can only be understood through the lens of Scripture.

Through the Jewish people, God brought the law, giving His creation an understanding of sin, and subsequently, through the Jewish people, God provided humanity a Savior from that sin, Jesus Christ (Romans 9:4-5, 7:7, 10:4, 3:1-2, Matt. 5:17).

The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are interwoven within God’s plan for all mankind, beginning to end. They are, by God’s mercy, the chosen people used to bring about His perfect will and salvation (Luke 2:25-32). It is for this reason that a battle, which is spiritual in nature, is constantly being waged against Israel and the Jews (Eph. 6:12). https://harbingersdaily.com/frightening-german-hatred-of-jews-rises-40-showing-dangerous-influence-of-anti-semitic-propaganda/

Racial hatred is wrong.

A major reason, however, for antisemitism has been that various ones who falsely have claimed to be “Christians” have advocated it.

Of course, no real Christian would have done that (or at least would have repented if he/she sinned that way). Instead many who have claimed Christ have caused “the way of truth” to be blasphemed (2 Peter 2:2).

The Apostle Paul makes the following statement about real and not real Christians:

9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:9)

The antisemitic persecutors throughout history were NOT real Christians.

If we start with the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century (who is considered as an Eastern Orthodox saint), we note that he stated:

Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way. (Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, Book III chapter 18)

The way that Jesus, who was Jewish, taught differently was love. Jesus never taught to have ‘nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.’ Roman Catholics refer to Constantine as ‘Constantine the Great,’ but he obviously held antisemitic views.

Around 332, Constantine issued what is known as the Edict Against the Heretics which included persecution against Christians who held to the original faith and had practices, such as the date of Passover on the 14th, the same as the Jews who used the scriptures (see also Persecutions by Church and State). Constantine was opposed to that which is part of why he made his “detestable Jewish crowd” statement.

But it was not just him.

Constantine’s declarations and various councils did not stop everyone from properly observing Passover or keeping other Christian practices. So, a later Roman Emperor decreed the death penalty related to proper Passover observance:

Edicts of Theodosius against the heretics, A.D. 380-394…Theodosius…decreed that…by the death of the offender; and the same capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans, who should dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an improper day the festival…

The theory of persecution was established by Theodosius, whose justice and piety have been applauded by the saints (Gibbon E. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume III, Chapter XXVII. ca. 1776-1788).

Is killing those that followed the example of Jesus and John, to observe the Passover on the 14th instead of Sunday, a sign of a true Christian leader or a sign of a supporter of antichrist? How could any true saint applaud Theodosius for killing people who followed Jesus’, John’s, Polycarp’s, etc. example of observing Passover on the biblical date?

On the night of His final Passover, Jesus declared:

2 … the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. (John 16:2).

And those who followed the Emperor Theodosius fulfilled that prophecy–they killed people for keeping Passover the same night that Jesus did. Those who will associate the final Imperial leader in the end times are apparently prophesied to do the same thing (Daniel 7:25).

Jesus also taught:

20 If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also (John 15:20).

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:9-14)

Sadly, many of those who claim to be Christian do not keep Jesus’ word, have persecuted in the past, and will persecute in the future. Many do not want to have the good news of the Kingdom of God promoted–but it will happen despite persecutions.

Consider also that in 387, the Eastern Orthodox saint and bishop John Chrysostom preached the following type of hateful persecution:

The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observing their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the Church right now…If the Jewish ceremonies are venerable and great, ours are lies…Does God hate their festivals and do you share in them? He did not say this or that festival, but all of them together. (John Chrysostom. Homily I Against the Jews I:5;VI:5;VII:2. Preached at Antioch, Syria in the Fall of 387 AD. Medieval Sourcebook: Saint John Chrysostom (c.347-407) : Eight Homilies Against the Jews. Fordham University. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chrysostom-jews6.html 12/10/05).

So, he opposed those who kept biblical holy days. It is God’s Holy Days that scripture points to being “great” (cf. John 7:37).

John Chrysostom also preached the following in his Homily Against the Jews (of which there are at least eight antisemitic homilies):

But do not be surprised that I called the Jews pitiable. They really are pitiable and miserable (I:II:1).

So the godlessness of the Jews and the pagans is on a par. But the Jews practice a deceit which is more dangerous (I:VI:4).

Do you see that demons dwell in their souls and that these demons are more dangerous than the ones of old? (I:VI:7).

Since it is against the Jews that I wish to draw up my battle line, let me extend my instruction further. Let me show that, by fasting now, the Jews dishonor the law and trample underfoot God’s commands because they are always doing everything contrary to his decrees. When God wished them to fast, they got fat and flabby (VI:IV:2).

Indeed, the fasting of the Jews, which is more disgraceful than any drunkenness, is over and gone (VIII:I:5).

John Chrysostom is considered to be a major Roman Catholic saint. He is one of the four ‘doctors of the church’ who is shown supporting a large black chair that is called the Cathedra Petri (Chair of Peter) in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The late Joseph Tkach of the old Worldwide Church of God once referred to this chair as Satan’s throne (see Might Satan’s throne be the ‘Cathedra Petri’?).

The Protestant publication calling itself Christianity Today once had a link titled, “Person of the Week: John Chrysostom” which went to an article titled: John Chrysostom Early church’s greatest preacher. So, many Protestants too, endorse an antisemite. More on him can be found in the article John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople and Antisemite.

It perhaps should be pointed out that sometimes those in the true Church of God have been considered to be secretly Jews by some in Greco-Roman faiths:

In the Middle Ages, the Popes and the Councils were successful in destroying the Jewish revolutionary movements which appeared within Christianity in the form of false teaching and which were introduced by those who were Christians in appearance but Jews in secret. The latter then recruited upright and good Christians for the arising heretical movement by persuading the latter in a crafty way.

The secret Jews organised and controlled in secret manner the movements, which were the creative and driving force of wicked false teachings, such as those of the Iconoclasts, the Cathars, the Patarines, the Albigensians, the Hussites, the Alumbrados and others. (Pinay, Maurice. The Plot Against the Church, Part Four Chapter One. Translated from the German and Spanish editions of the same work. 1962)

The above book is still recommended, by and for, many Roman Catholics (though some others distance themselves from it). Hence, some of the Greco-Romans have considered some of whom we in the Continuing Church of God include in our tracing of our spiritual ancestors (like some of the Cathars and Albigenses) to have been a secret Jewish group that only professed Christ.

As far as Protestant leaders themselves with antisemitic views, one can notice some of the teachings of Martin Luther, who wrote in the 16th century:

My heart is fuller of these thoughts than my tongue can tell. I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God as all the prophets have predicted. He who neither reads nor understands this, as yet knows no theology, in my opinion. And so I presume the men of Cologne cannot understand the Scripture, because it is necessary that such things take place to fulfill prophecy. If they are trying to stop the Jews blaspheming, they are working to prove the Bible and God liars (“Martin Luther’s to George Spalatin,” from Luther’s Correspondence and Other Contemporan, Letters, trans. by P. Smith (1913), Vol. 1, pp. 28-29).

Furthermore he wrote:

I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that those miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them…They are so blind and stupid that they see neither the words found in Genesis 17 nor the whole of Scripture, which mightily and explicitly condemns this lie…They are real liars and bloodhounds who have not only continually perverted and falsified all of Scripture with their mendacious glosses from the beginning until the present day. Their heart’s most ardent sighing and yearning and hoping is set on the day on which they can deal with us Gentiles as they did with the Gentiles in Persia at the time of Esther…The worse a Jew is, the more arrogant he is, solely because he is a Jew — that is, a person descended from Abraham’s seed, circumcised, and under the law of Moses. David and other pious Jews were not as conceited as the present-day, incorrigible Jews…I wanted to present this to us Germans so that we might see what rascals the blind Jews are and how powerfully the truth of God in our midst stands with us and against them (Medieval Sourcebook: Martin Luther (1483-1546): On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543)

Martin Luther advised his followers:

…to burn down Jewish schools and synagogues, and to throw pitch and sulphur into the flames; to destroy their homes; to confiscate their ready money in gold and silver; to take from them their sacred books, even the whole Bible; and if that did not help matters, to hunt them of the country like mad dogs (Luther’s Works, vol. Xx, pp. 2230-2632 as quoted in Stoddard JL. Rebuilding a Lost Faith, 1922, p.99).

Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death. My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss in sulphur and pitch (Martin Luther (1483-1546): On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543 as quoted from Luther’s Works, Volume 47: The Christian in Society IV, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971). pp 268­293).

Leaders esteemed by the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have all advocated horrible antisemitism. They were NOT real Christians.

Many people hate others, and the Jews tend to be one of the more hated groups. But that is not how people are to live.

Notice something that God had Moses record:

8 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)

It is not just Jews that are hated or will be in the future. Throughout history, true Christians have sometimes been called “Jews” and have been subject to persecution supposedly directed towards Jews. True Christians also had to suffer through the so-called Inquisition, which utilized torture against those that had Church of God beliefs–and more is expected in the future (see Persecutions by Church and State). Protestant leaders have also promoted antisemitism and Church of God persecution (see The Similarities and Dissimilarities between Martin Luther and Herbert W. Armstrong) and Eastern Orthodox (see John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople and Antisemite).

It is not just physical, ethnic Jews that are at risk–spiritual ones are as well (cf. Romans 2:28-29; John 15:20; see also The Spanish Inquisition and Early Protestant Persecutions).

Scholars, including the late French Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie Danielou, have taught that church history has generally been mistaught and that the original Christian church was quite “Jewish.” And he specifically wrote that the misteaching of the Jewishness of the faith has led to a “false picture of Christian history” (Daniélou J, Cardinal. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Translated by John A. Baker. The Westminster Press, 1964, Philadelphia, p. 2).

And that is true, as most who profess Christianity have accepted false arguments and improper traditions for many beliefs and practices.

It is well known by scholars that the first 15 bishops/overseers of Jerusalem were circumcised Jews that:

• Kept the seventh day Sabbath
• Kept the biblical Holy Days
• Did not eat biblically unclean meat

These practices were also in Asia Minor as can be documented into the third century, as well as in Jerusalem into the fourth century (and Constantine ordered the death penalty for those who would not eat pork back then).

Constantine and others failed to “…contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered for the saints” (Jude 3). Instead, he and others persecuted and set the stage for antisemitism to this day.

It is also a historical fact that the early Christian church was considered a sect of the Jews by the Roman authorities. It was not considered to even be a separate religion for a time.

Sadly, in the future, we will see more persecution against those who hold to the original faith and practices that many today consider Jewish.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2022 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Church History, Religious News.

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