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Breaking Down The Barriers:
"Christian Anti-Semitism
through the Years
Over the years there have been
many Jews ruthlessly killed or persecuted by anti-Semites claiming to be
followers of Jesus. Consequently, the marvelous truth of Jesus' love for the
Jewish people is lost to many of my brethren due to the actions of so-called
Christians.
Few realize, however, that it
wasn't true followers of Jesus who committed these atrocities but, rather, false
professors of the Christian faith. Since "Christian anti-semitism" is
one of the first objections to come from the mouth of a Jew who is evangelized,
we must now devote ourselves to the task of distinguishing the true Christian
from the false.
The Question So Often Asked
In regard to the Catholic
Crusades of 1096-1291, one Jewish Encyclopedia comments: "In the Holy Land
itself, the few surviving Jewish communities were almost entirely destroyed by
the Crusaders. What the pagan Romans had left undone, the Christians
completed."1
In context of quotations like
these many Jews have asked, "How can Christianity be true when the church
murdered thousands of Jews during the Catholic Crusades and Inquisitions?"
The answer to this fair question is simple. Just as the Israelites who worshiped
the golden calf in Exodus 32:1-35 were in complete rebellion to the teachings of
Moses, so too were the Catholics who committed these atrocities in complete
rebellion to the teachings of Jesus. Let the reader examine with an open heart
the reasons why the actions of the Catholic church did not reflect Jesus and his
church. (In all fairness, it must be noted that Roman Catholics today
acknowledge and repudiate the terrible atrocities perpetrated by their church in
the past.)
The Roman Catholic Church and the
Inquisitions
The Inquisition was a tribunal of
the Roman Catholic Church whose function was to combat heresy. The Inquisition
had three institutions: the Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, and
the Roman Inquisition. These Inquisitions covered a time period from about
A.D.324 up to the 1800's. We shall now list the crimes against humanity that the
Catholic Church committed during the Inquisitions and how they directly
contradicted the teachings of Christ.
CATHOLIC CHURCH PRACTICE:
Suspected heretics, as a rule, were condemned without being given a fair trial.
They could not even call for their own witnesses or hire a lawyer: "Pope
Innocent III prohibited the appointment of lawyers to defend the accused."2
It is understandable why the verdicts issued by these "courts" rarely
went to the defendant.
NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH: In the New
Testament those accused of error are to be given a fair hearing. Those who are
convicted of sin or heresy are to be disfellowshiped and verbally admonished to
repent---not killed or imprisoned or robbed of their property! (Matthew
18:15-18: 2 Thessalonians 3:14).
CATHOLIC CHURCH PRACTICE: To
establish the guilt of the accused, the Catholic Inquisitor could threaten or
imprison the "heretic." Then in 1252 Pope Innocent IV even authorized
the use of torture to bring about confession. Once the "heretic" was
"convicted" he often was given penalties such as perpetual
imprisonment (which often involved being chained to the wall of a narrow, cold
dark cell), and confiscation of property. Even "heretics" that
recanted were still often imprisoned or punished.
NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH: In the New
Testament, Jesus taught that we should "love our enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully
use you, and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44). Jesus also taught that if
someone strikes you, you should not strike them back (Matthew 5:38-39).
CATHOLIC CHURCH PRACTICE: Those
whom the Inquisitors deemed obstinate heretics were handed over to the secular
authorities to be put to death. A common means of execution for the condemned
was to be burned to death while tied to a stake. The Jews were often targeted
for special persecution, especially during the Spanish Inquisition. "In
1390 about 50,000 Jews were massacred." Then "in 1492 the Jews who
would not accept Christianity were expelled from Spain..."3
NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH: Although
Jesus strongly condemned the false doctrines of His Jewish contemporaries, He
taught His followers that they should love the Jewish race and try to win them
over peacefully through preaching. As mentioned earlier, Jesus taught his
followers to pray for and not retaliate against those who persecuted them
(Matthew 5:38-43). The New Testament attests to how the early church, comprised
of both Jews and Gentiles, followed these commands and were persecuted by
non-Christian Jews and Gentiles (Acts 7:1-60; James 5:6).
Martin Luther
In 1539 Martin Luther, a Catholic
Monk, broke away from the Catholic church and started what is commonly known as
the Protestant Reformation. Although a number of the doctrinal disagreements
that motivated Luther's departure were justified, he nonetheless failed to
permanently separate himself from the anti-Semitic spirit of the Catholic
Church. At the beginning of his ministry, Luther was sympathetic toward the
Jews. This was reflected in his earlier writings. Luther thought that the Jews
would turn to Jesus now that they were given a viable alternative to the
Catholic Church. But the Jews rejected the Protestant reformation as sharply as
they had the Catholic Church. With the passing of time, Luther's
"love" turned to bitter rage. Toward the end of his life (1543),
Luther wrote several treatises against the Jews. In On The Jews And Their
Lies,
Luther called the Jews "venomous," "bitter worms," and
"disgusting vermin." He
also gave his advice on how the Jews were to be treated:
What shall we Christians do with
this rejected and condemned people, the Jews?...I shall give you my sincere
advice. First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover
with dirt whatever will not burn...This is to be done in honor of our Lord and
of Christendom...Second, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic
writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be
taken from them. Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach
henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb...Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct
on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews..."4
In regard to this quote from
Luther's tract, The Encyclopedia Judaica states: "Short of the Auschwitz
oven and extermination, the whole Nazi Holocaust is pre-outlined here."5
Indeed, both Adolph Hitler and
Julius Streicher quoted from Luther's tracts to give religious
"respectability" to their racist policies and persecutions against the
Jews. Adolph Hitler considered Luther to be a German hero and launched his
infamous "night of glass" campaign against the Jews on Luther's
birthday.
Anti-Missionary Prejudice
It is perfectly understandable
why many Jews lacking the knowledge to differentiate between true and false
Christians have rejected Christianity. However, for some, "Christian"
anti-Semitism is nothing more than an excuse for rejecting the claims of Jesus.
In fact, generally I have found
that Jews, particularly trained anti-missionaries, are more prejudiced against
Christians, than "Christians" are against Jews. (Of course, there are
"good guys" on both sides.) To cite a small example, I quote from an
article that appeared in the Baltimore Sun many years ago by Jim Bishop. He
decries that the Jews are charged with killing Jesus. "This is akin",
he says, "to saying the Americans killed Kennedy." But Bishop turns
right around and does the very thing that he deplores that others have done to
him: "The theologians all of them knew the truth. Their weakness was they
were men, and thus prone to spread hatred through silence...The Christian is
overtly anti-Semitic."
This, sadly, is by no means an
isolated example. Aryeh Kaplan states, "Missionaries are usually
closed-minded fanatics..." then hypocritically encourages his readers to be
closed-minded a few paragraphs later..."When they come smiling to the door,
respond politely but with no recrimination 'No, thanks, I'm not
interested,' or some brief and definitive equivalent."6
Levine also reveals some
regrettable anti-Christian animosity when he said, “Thus, even though many
Christians have not thought about their religion, and many do not know or read
the Bible (and remember, a
Christian must read only the Bible, with no commentaries, while a Jew must read
the Bible, with the commentaries, the vast Talmud, with its commentaries, the
complicated codes of law, etc.), they believe in Jesus, for that is the one
price you must pay to be a Christian you must forfeit your brain and
intellectual honesty” (Levine, pp. 64-65).
In light of these quotes from
champion anti-missionaries, one must wonder if it is not Judaism that is the
most prejudiced and close-minded of all the religions. (Incidentally, most
evangelical Christians possess at least one biblical commentary. They sell by
the millions each year.)
Judaism’s Scandals
Is it likely that the trained
anti-missionary could be acutely aware of our scandals, yet be ignorant
regarding their own? They are so quick to point out, with justifiable
indignation, Christianity's Luthers, but they are not so quick to vilify their
own apostates. What about the virtual hero status accorded to Rabbi Akiba, who incited
the Jewish nation to rebellion and her subsequent destruction by promoting the
false Messiah Bar Kokhba?
Furthermore, it is an
indisputable historical fact that the Communist revolution would not have
succeeded if it were not for Jewish involvement in the leadership. The Jews of
this movement, though mostly agnostic and atheistic, were still distinctly Jews
who were eventually purged from the leadership by Stalin:
In
his 1938 book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Proved Forgery,
based on his testimony at the Berne
Trial, Vladimir Burtsev wrote: ‘Anti-Semites...
refused to acknowledge the important and indisputable fact that the Jews who
participated in the Socialist and Anarchist movements around the world,
including the Russian Jews in particular, were renegades of the Jewish nation
who had no connection with Jewish history nor with Jewish religion nor with
Jewish masses, but were rather exclusively internationalists, the ideas shared
by Socialists of other ethnicities, and were hostile to the Jewish nation in
general.”7
Considering the fact that
communism has claimed close to 100 million lives to date, we are at once
confronted with a scandal which easily eclipses that perpetrated by apostate
"Christianity." What godless men like Hitler and others have done with
this information was to stereotype all Jews as being part of a worldwide
conspiracy. But most Jews are totally unaware of the disproportionate Jewish
involvement in the creation of Communism. Most Jews today hate Communism. They
do not wish to be unjustly associated with the actions of other Jews. Likewise,
true Christians today desire to be treated in the same manner. As Jesus said
"...Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the
Law and the Prophets..." (Matt. 7:12). If the anti-missionaries were to
follow this rule, they would lose one of their biggest objections to accepting
Jesus.
A Fair and Just Conclusion
Some time ago I had a
conversation with an Orthodox Rabbi. He told me that Reformed Judaism was so
apostate that he would rather see a Jew become a conservative Christian before
he would become a Reformed Jew. (The implication being that I should not judge
the Orthodox branch of the Jewish faith based on the actions and beliefs of the
Reformed.) Although we obviously disagreed about who the Messiah was, I can
certainly commend him for his candor and objectivity in making such a statement
and for his willingness to discuss our differences in a peaceful manner.
Every religion throughout the
years whether Christianity, Judaism, etc., has had people they considered
“renegades” (those who deviated greatly from the writings of that particular
religion). Fair-minded and honorable people will not judge the validity of a
religion solely upon the actions of some.