As Israel observes Holocaust Remembrance Day, this podcast challenges Christians to look honestly at our doctrines and beliefs that contain anti-Semitism. Because of its anti-Semitism, and actual Jew hatred, the Church bears a great deal of responsibility in the history of the Holocaust. That, in my mind, requires us to work at ending the roots of anti-Semitic beliefs in the Church. I think these things still exist in our midst, and therefore this is something that needs to be focused on and corrected.

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Show Notes:

I would say that most Christians do not realize how much Church history and Church doctrines are filled with anti-Semitism. In my mind, not recognizing that some of our foundational belief systems were built by the Church fathers on a platform of anti-Semitism makes following these doctrines particularly dangerous. We have a responsibility as Christians to understand what it is that we say we are believing and following. If we are still holding onto concepts that caused the persecution of the Jewish people, and even enabled the Holocaust, we should remove those from our thinking.

One of the concepts at the foundation of anti-Semitism in the Church is the belief that the Jews crucified Yeshua, or Jesus. This idea, bolstered by Church doctrine, that the Jews are guilty and deserve to be punished caused many Christians to be passive, or even active, participants in terrible persecutions of the Jewish people. Teachings by respected Church leaders on how Jews should be treated for their presumed guilt were literally carried out by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

You may think that this is all in the past and that you are not anti-Semitic, but I implore you to examine your own beliefs. Today, the very popular rapture theory contends that Christians will be taken to heaven while Jews on the earth endure severe dealings by God for their rejection of the Messiah. Once again we find Christians teaching that the Jews are guilty of something and deserve to be punished. Just like the belief that the Jews killed Christ, this teaching is in direct opposition to the Scriptures and the history of Jewish believers in Yeshua HaMashiach. It is up to us as Christians to read the Word, study the Scriptures, know the truth, and uproot anti-Semitism in the Church.

Key Verses:

• Matthew 24:8 (KJV). “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
• Matthew 1:21. “Call His name Jesus [Yehoshua], for He will save His people from their sins.”
• Acts 2:41. “That day there were added about three thousand souls.”
• Acts 4:4. “And the number of men came to be about five thousand.”
• Acts 21:20. “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed.”
• Genesis 3:4-5. “God knows that in the day you eat from it … you will be like God.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:18. “We all, with unveiled face … are being transformed into the same image.”
• John 16:13. “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”
• Isaiah 28:17. “Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies.”

Quotes:

• “Let there be no anti-Semitism in our hearts. Let there be no anti-Semitism in our churches, in our doctrines. Let there be nothing in our writings which, again, would be something that people could use against the Jewish people.”
• “The whole cry of the Holocaust Remembrance is, “Never again!” But I’ll tell you, it will happen again if we don’t get rid of the roots and the reasons why it happened in the first place.”
• “I beg you, get rid of your anti-Semitic doctrines, your anti-Semitic thinking, and read the Scriptures. Read about the cross. Read about the crucifixion. You will find a different story than the one that is being told by so many in their doctrines.”

Takeaways:

1. To use the death of Christ on the cross to put blame on anyone annuls the very purpose of the cross, which was the ministry of grace and forgiveness to humankind. If you still have a burning question of who killed Jesus, or who crucified Yeshua, you have a problem, because that is the wrong question. And because you are beginning with the wrong question, there is no way to
   come up with the right answer.

2. There is already enough being said to evoke anti-Semitism in this day and age that we do not need the help of doctrines that are amiss, that promote the idea that the Jewish people need to be punished because they have not yet received Yeshua as the Messiah.
3. Down through history many Jews have believed in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah). Therefore, the statement that the Jews killed Jesus and have never received Him as Messiah is a lie. It is just a lie. And when you believe a lie, then you are well on the road to being influenced by satan.