04-Anti-Semitism and the Christian

Anti-Semitism and the Christian

CHAPTER FOUR WITH SUCH a wave of hatred sweeping over the world, the need of true Christian testimony to the Jewish people becomes more imperative. It cannot be denied that in many lands severe offenses and provocations have been given by the activities of certain Jews. Christian people cannot but join in the condemnation of such offenses. The danger to Christian testimony begins at the point where sincere Christian people take up the world’s plan of condemning all Jews, good and bad, for the sins of the few.
The first business of the church is to give assurance to the Jew that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth that in Christ, all, regardless of racial extraction, become members of one body. We have no approach to the Jew, however, when we give evidence that we are blinded by race prejudice.

It is a deplorable fact that many Christians have fallen in with the world’s habit of making the Jew the “goat” for every bad situation.

It might be well for us to recall that in the early days of Christianity, it was the Christians who were made the goats of every calamity or depression. For instance, Tertullian wrote:

“The name faction may properly be given to those who join to hate the good and honest, who shout for the blood of the innocent, who use as a pretext to defend their hatred the absurdity that they take the Christians to be the cause of every disaster to the state, of every misfortune of the people. If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, if the sky doesn’t move or the earth does, if there is famine, if there is plague, the cry is at once: ‘The Christians to the lions.’” As St. Augustine remarked: “If there is a shortage of rain, surely the Christians are the cause of it.”

Even the blood ritual accusation that is today frequently charged to the Jews, was in the early days assigned to Christians who were said to use real human blood in the Lord’s Supper. In Tertullian’s Apologeticus, we read:

“Let your error blush before the Christians, for we do not even include animal’s blood in our diet. We abstain on that account from things strangled or that die of themselves, that we may not in any way be polluted by blood, even if it is buried in the meat. Finally, when you are testing Christians, you offer them sausages full of blood; you are thoroughly aware that among them it is forbidden; but you want to make them transgress. Now I ask you what sort of a thing is it, that when you are confident they will turn with horror from animal’s blood, you should suppose them greedy for human blood-unless you yourselves have found it sweeter?”

These accusations against Christians were no more truthful than the same accusations against the Jewish people, today. Either there is a lack of sane social intelligence on the part of those who peddle these tales or else they have deliberately set themselves to broadcast the poison of hate, which, if done persistently will poison the minds of generations to come.
A classic of unintentional humor and stupidity was recently gotten off before a credulous audience by a bellowing evangelist: “If the Jews want to end this antagonism against themselves,” he shouted, “then let them put a stop to this depression.”

BURNING WARNINGS OF THE BIBLE

While God has permitted Anti-Semitism to be the rod of correction upon His ancient people, the fact remains that for those who participate in the persecution, there are no more burning warnings in the Word of God. If history teaches anything it is that the nations that have attempted to exterminate the Jews have in the end committed suicide. There is no better proof of the inspiration of the Bible than the historic records of what has happened to nations that have persecuted the Jew, and the favor of Providence upon those nations that have befriended the Jews.

If human experience has taught anything, it is that the individual who attempts to ride the ever-popular wave of anti-Semitism to personal wealth and public favor, rides to an ignominious fall in the end.
The Word of God offers no quarter to individual Jews who may be criminals. The law breaker is to be dealt with, whether Jew or Gentile. There are radical Jews as there are radical Gentiles-and no more in proportion to population. There is no warrant for dealing gently with an offender against the peace of society, because he happens to be a Jew.
But the Word of God condemns in no unmistakable terms those who engage in propaganda that tends to create hatred against and persecution of the Jewish people.

- “Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off” (Micah 5:9).
- “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee” (Isaiah 49:25).
- “Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake” (Isaiah 54:15).
- “All they that devour thee shall be devoured . . . all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey” (Jeremiah 30:16).
- “When I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God” (Ezekiel 28:26).

There are many other such warnings in the Word of God, most of them related to the prophecies of the closing days of this age.

Those who are careful students of the prophetic Scriptures need not to be told that there is no more dangerous fire to play with than that of Jew hate. Until the last few years it has been the Fundamentalists and Premillennialists who have been noted for teaching kindness to the Jews and for persistently promoting the preaching of the Gospel of the love of Christ to the Jews. It is still true of the vast majority of those who are loyal to the Scriptures.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA But a most amazing situation has arisen.

While anti-Semitism has been propagated almost entirely in Europe by pagan and atheistic elements, particularly of late, the Nazis-in America some of the most damaging anti-Semitic propaganda has come from a few professed defenders of Orthodoxy to be largely circulated among Christian people. Such material has been freely distributed at the doors of churches by earnest people who believed themselves rendering a service unto the Lord. When this movement started in America, one of Scotland’s great Christian leaders wrote:

“We are greatly disturbed over the keen anti-Semitism of some of your American Fundamentalists, so called. Many things have come to my notice which have left little doubt that in American Fundamentalism there is a leaven at work which, if not counteracted and expelled, will ere long destroy the Gospel of Christ utterly throughout that area and combine with the other godless forces to effect in America what was done in France through the Revolution of 1789 to 1815.” So serious became this flood of propaganda, more and more employing the very language of the Nazi Jew-baiting papers, that when many printed and public protests availed nothing, the outstanding Fundamentalist ministers of America signed and published a “Manifesto” which appeared in several Christian papers. Among other things this Manifesto stated:

“We declare that any attempt to use the Scriptures as an excuse for an anti-Semitic attitude is a perversion of God’s Word and irreconcilable with the spirit and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Addressing the Jews, this Manifesto said: “To the Jewish people we declare . . . we have no part in stirring up of base passions against you and we want you to know that those who are thus guilty do not express the love which the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to show you.”

BRITISH LEADERS GIVE WARNING When this American Fundamentalist literature began to attain circulation in Great Britain, the Advent Testimony Preparation Movement, which includes the prophetic students of Great Britain, issued through its official paper, The Advent Witness, the following warning:

“It will seem incredible to the vast majority of the Lord’s people in this country that there are in the U. S. A. some who, though stalwart ‘Fundamentalists,’ are joining in the outcry against the Jews, who are charged with plotting a conspiracy for world revolution of the Communist type as revealed in the outrageous ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’

“Literature supporting this anti-Jewish campaign having been received by some of our readers, we are asked for our views on the subject.

“Our reply shall be brief. We are of opinion that it is the duty and privilege of Christians to do all they possibly can by prayer and practical sympathy to succor the Jews in the time of their great distress, remembering that God has said, ‘I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee.’

“No doubt there are bad Jews as there are bad Gentiles. But it is not our duty to discriminate between the good and the bad, but to recognize the fact that the Israel people were chosen of God to bring salvation to the world. ‘Salvation is of the Jews,’ ‘of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.’ From the Jews also we received the Scriptures, for ‘to them were committed the oracles of God.’ Therefore it seems to us that we owe more than we can ever repay to that nation which God has delighted to honor.

“Truly the Jews are and have been for centuries set aside by God because of their apostasy, but if it is the divine will that Israel should suffer affliction, it has never been the business of the Church to join in the world’s hue and cry against the Jews. The enemies of the Jews are enemies of God and the cruelest persecution of Jews has come from those nations which disregard the claims of God in Christ.”

One after another of the trusted Christian leaders of America have publicly dissociated themselves with the movement fostering this anti-Jewish and pro-Hitler propaganda in America.

One strong pronouncement came from Dr. J. Oliver Buswell, President of Wheaton College, through the columns of The Sunday School Times, as follows:

“I wish to express my regret at the prevalence of race prejudice recently manifesting itself among some of our Fundamentalist brethren. I do not feel that any race can be blamed for the spread of the evil propaganda of Communism. It may be true, that many atheistic Jews are Communists. It is also true that many Gentiles are Communists.

“It seems to me particularly absurd to blame any race for such authorship of documents like the much discussed Protocols. In the nature of the cause, such a document cannot be written by a race. It must have been written by individuals. These individuals may or may not be Gentiles. If they were Gentiles, I do not feel that the Gentile people of the world can be blamed for their authorship.

“The great point that comes to my mind in this connection is that every one of us, Jew and Gentile alike, is a child of Adam, totally corrupt and rebellious at heart until redeemed by the blood of Christ through faith alone. It is not appropriate for any group of Adam’s family to point the finger of scorn at any other group racially. All are by nature the children of wrath. We who have been redeemed by the atonement of Christ must do everything possible to win the lost, Jew and Gentile alike, to Him.”

MODERNISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM The Christian Racial Fellowship Foundation, in one of its tracts warning against anti-Semitism in Christendom, quoted a prominent Hebrew Christian evangelist as saying:

“Here is a powerful idea that has been burning within me. I have had it in mind to prepare a study showing by actual quotations and references to recent events that it is the Modernists who are now openly befriending the Jewish race since the rise of Hitler. Such men as Cadman, Fosdick, and Coffin have been calling the world’s attention to the unspeakable outrages that are being perpetrated upon Jews simply because of race. They are deploring the Nazi uprisings and doing their best to defend the Jews. Thus the Jews are learning to look to the Modernists as their real friends.

“The other side of the picture, sadly enough, is that almost without exception those who have been in the front ranks of stirring up suspicion against the Jewish people in America call themselves orthodox Christians. What does this mean? It means that men identifying themselves with Fundamentalism are guilty of building up in the mind of the Jew a profound contempt for what is called orthodox Christianity. In this way thousands of Jews are made harder to reach, if not unreachable.

“Now let us jump ahead a bit. We know that the Jews are eventually to make a covenant with the antichrist. If he is to be the head of a hodge-podge organization of Modernists and other kinds of believers, then these Modernists will have the good will of the Jews, while the Fundamentalists will have forfeited all influence and the Jews will look upon them as their mortal enemies. What a responsibility upon orthodox leaders today!” The fact that these things tend toward the fulfillment of prophecy-the driving of the Jews back to Palestine-gives us no warrant in aiding persecutors of the Jews. If we cannot prevent these things, may God keep us clean from the blood that is certain to flow!

Dr. Henry S. Leiper in a recent church broadcast said:

“This story was told me by an engineer in New York, named Nichols. He said that in the company where he worked there was a strong prejudice against Jews. A young engineer came to work who looked Jewish. Immediately he was the object of all kinds of subtle discriminations. He was misinformed on many points by his associates so that he unwittingly broke the rules of the place and was soon discharged. Later, Mr. Nichols met him in a restaurant and sat down to talk. Purposely he brought up the subject of religion. The young engineer said that he was a Protestant. Mr. Nichols said, ‘I should think you would change your name. It sounds Jewish and you look a little Jewish.’
“The reply was: ‘Not only am I not a Jew, but none of my ancestors were Jews. What’s more, we hate the Jews. I think they ought all to get out of this country and stay out.’ ‘Wouldn’t you at least give a Jew a fair deal for what he is worth as an individual?’ queried Mr. Nichols. ‘No,’ said the young man.

“‘Do you know why you lost your job?’ asked Nichols.

“‘No,’ said the engineer, ‘and I would like to. There was something queer about the way I was treated.’

“‘You got treated as you did because the boys up at the company think the same as you. You had a good taste of your own medicine. How do you like it?’

“‘Gosh! I never thought of that!’ exclaimed the advocate of ill-will.

“No, he had never thought of the Golden Rule as applied to life where he himself was concerned. If only we can all acquire the habit of thinking how our conduct toward others would appear if it concerned ourselves we shall go a long way toward the development of that good will and fair dealing upon which rests the future of our American democracy.”