The books ‘Why the Jews’ by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin; ‘The Anguish of the Jews’ by Edward Flannery; and ‘Our Hands are Stained with Blood’, by Dr Michael Brown, all target anti-semitism, and specifically Christian anti-semitism, are unequivocally the hardest books I have ever read! They should be mandatory for every Christian leader not only to read, but digest because of the horrible truths systematically laid out by their authors.
  According to the Bible (1Jn1:9) there can be no repentance from sin…without acknowledgment of that sin; and just as important, turning away from the sin! Therefore, there can be no justification for the many atrocities committed against Jews in the Name of Christ! As Dr Brown so accurately reminds us in the title of chapter 10 of his work: “More Tears”; YES…it is true that…ONLY “More Tears” should be shed for the Jews who experienced ‘Christian’ persecution. Remember, the Jews that perished at the hands of “supposed Christians” will never return…they are gone forever!
  Although no acceptable excuses can ever be offered for the terrible fact that historically Christians persecuted Jews, I do find that Prager and Rabbi Telushkin have made some blaring errors in their judgments. I believe that because these two outstanding thinkers and writers use only their great intellects to deduce their conclusions logically, they do not fully understand the spiritual aspect of anti-semitism.
  I do believe that because these men rely almost exclusively on their ability to reason, and do not seek the revelation that comes only from the Holy Spirit--especially on something as intense as anti-semitism--they miss the only foundation of ALL anti-semitism---Satan!!!
  In addition, which I will elaborate more on in subsequent tidbits, Prager and Telushkin also miss a second critical point—and that is not all Christians who claim Christianity are Christians. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says in the day of judgment, not every person who calls Him LORD, LORD is saved, i.e.born again, i.e.a Christian, even though confessing Jesus as LORD is the only path to salvation(Rom10:9,10)! Jesus says, only those who do God’s will; not those who simply say, or claim Christianity…are Christians.
   On page 10 of ‘Why the Jews’, Prager and Telushkin write, “It takes infinitely more than economic tensions or racial prejudice to create the animosity that often has involved the torturing of children and the murdering of entire communities. Only a people representing a threat to the core values, allegiances, and beliefs of others could arouse such universal, deep, and lasting hatred.”
  Now, let’s examine the above quote by Prager and Telushkin. I agree that anti-semitism cannot be reduced only to “economic tensions or racial prejudice to create the animosity that…tortured” children and murdered entire communities—because economic tensions and racism are much too simplistic an explanation for such a complicated behavior as anti-semitism.
   Furthermore, at least for Christians…the last sentence of their paragraph: “Only a people (Jews) representing a threat to the core values, allegiances, and beliefs of others (Christians) could arouse such universal, deep, and lasting hatred”…should not be true!! Why? How can an authentic Christian*--- who holds the Tanakh, i.e.the Old Testament, as the inspired word of God; and who believes there is no discrepancy between the Old and New Testaments—which were all written by Jews; and who holds to Elelohe Israel i.e. the God of Israel--as THE only God; and most importantly, who holds to Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, as his Lord and Savior, find the Jews to be a threat to their “core values”, “allegiances”, and “beliefs” inspiring a “universal”, “deep”, and “lasting hatred”….when their “core values” are the same!
  Allow me to amplify my previous point. If both Jews and Christians have the same God, and the same Word from God, the values of Christians and Jews must be the same despite any differences in doctrine! For example, Have no other God before me (Ex20:3); do not steal(Ex20:15), do not kill(Ex20:13), Love God (Deut11:13; Mat22:37)etc., are all common values both Jews and Christians share.
  In fact, the greatest evidence for my “same values” point is a wonderful term that precisely describes these “same values”: ‘the Judaeo-Christian ethic’. While I’m uncertain of this famous term’s origin, I would be blind and dishonest not to see that it speaks volumes to the common values of these two theological systems. Remember, not one person has ever thought to create a Judaeo-Muslim ethic, or a Hindu-Christian ethic! The obvious reason is that only the ‘Judaeo-Christian ethic’ derives from the same God.   
  Yet, what is also absolutely true, is that, because values drive beliefs---and the values of the Judaeo-Christian ethic are the same, how can small differences between the two groups rationally lead one group to sink to such an extreme as murder…and even worse: mass murder!??!!!???
 And furthermore, what’s also in need of an answer is that, if it is true that the values of the Judaeo-Christian ethic are the same for both groups---and they are---how have Christians today using those same values moved from murdering Jews during the Dark Ages to recognizing the unique calling of God upon the Jew today?!!?!
  For emphasis, allow me once again to amplify my previous point: Today…authentic* Christians are the Jews best friends---if not their only friends!!!! Therefore, if the following statement of Prager and Telushkin is true: Only a people (Jews) representing a threat to the core values, allegiances, and beliefs of others (Christians) could arouse such universal, deep, and lasting hatred”(from Christians)---then where is the “lasting hatred” of Christians now?!?!? In other words, why are Christians not murdering Jews now?
  Furthermore again….if Prager and Telushkin’s statement is true, the “lasting hatred” should be… lasting; perhaps even lasting forever… depending on how much time one assigns to the word “lasting”. Yet, because the authentic Christian today is the Jew’s best friend…Prager and Telushkin must again appeal to their intellect and offer a rational explanation for:
1.the murder of Jews in antiquity by Christians
           verses
2.the contemporary love for Jews that Christians hold today

Yet, they fail to do so! They simply dump all people who claim Christianity into the “Christians bowl”…and mix it up! On the other hand, the reason they believe all Christians who claim Christianity are Christians is because they do not have a revelation of authentic* Christianity!
  To be fair however, as Jews who practice Judaism, I cannot expect these two men to understand what comprises an authentic Christian, because if they did, they would convert to their Messiah!
   In conclusion, from the time of Jesus, there have always been pseudo-believers in Christ, for example, Judas. Yet, because authentic Christianity is obedient to the Word of God—from Genesis to Revelation—there have always been, and there will always be Christians who understand: 
           1.Hatred of the Jew is not just irrational, but demonic…because the
              Lord and Savior of the Christian is Jewish!
           2.The unique Calling of God upon the Jew (Deut7:6-8; Deut14:2;
               2Sam7:22-24)…and love and honor that Call.
           3.Satan is THE inspiration for anti-semitism, i.e. Jew-hatred!!!**
 
 
*See Matthew 7:21-23 for the definition of authentic and inauthentic Christianity.
**Because Satan hates God, he hates anything or anyone whom God calls

  In this tidbit we will look at the third of the three most often quoted lies used by “supposed Christians” in Medieval Europe to murder Jews. In their book ‘Why the Jews’,  Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin list the three lies as:
1.Blood Libel or ‘Ritual Murder’. Jews draw blood from children and drink it during their  celebrations, such as during Passover.
2.Jews poison Christians.
3.Jews kidnap the Communion wafer that is believed to be transubstantiated into the body of Jesus and then stick needles into it
​as a means of torturing Jesus.
 
Once again, I will allow Prager and Telushkin to instruct us, on page 86, they write: “In 1215, the fourth Lateran council accepted the doctrine of transubstantiation as official church dogma. The dogma asserted that the wafer used at the Mass was miraculously transformed into the body of the Jesus; the wafer was to be regarded not as a symbolic representation of Jesus, but as his actual body. Just how literally Christians accepted this teaching is exemplified in the writings of a leading preacher of the thirteenth century, Berthold of Regensburg. He explained that Christ, though present in the wafer, does not allow himself to be seen in it, for “who would like to bite off the little head, or the little hands, or the little feet of a little child.”
   Antisemitic usage of the doctrine of transubstantiation soon led to the torture and murder of thousands of Jews. Since Jesus becomes present through the wafer, the reasoning went, would not the Jews who had once crucified him wish to kill him again? In 1243, only twenty-eight years after the Fourth Lateran Council, the first accusation of “Host Desecration” occurred in Berlitz, near Berlin. The city’s entire Jewish community was burned alive for allegedly torturing a wafer.
Charges of “Host Desecration” spread throughout Europe. In Prague, in 1389, the Jewish community was collectively accused of attacking a monk carrying a wafer. Large mobs of Christians surrounded the Jewish neighborhood and offered the Jews the choice of baptism or death. Refusing to be baptized three thousand Jews were murdered. In Berlin, in 1510, twenty-six Jews were burned and two beheaded for reportedly “desecrating the host.”  A charge of host desecration was reported as late as 1836 in Romania.
   The “Host Desecration” libel is among the clearest examples of the Christian perception of the Jews as devils. Clearly, no one, not even a Jew, tortures wafers. If a person does “torture” one, it could mean only one thing: he, too, recognizes that the wafer is the body of Jesus, and wishes to make him suffer. Who but the people of the Devil recognize the divinity of Jesus but wish to destroy him?
   In his book, “The Anguish of the Jews” Edward Flannery, records more on this libel. On page 107, he writes: “In Rottingen to 1298 word went about that Jews had desecrated a host. Rindfleisch, a noblemen, stirred up the mob and sent the entire community to the stake. Thence he and his Judenschchters (Jew-slaughterers) marched through Germany and Austria pillaging, burning, and murdering Jews as they went. Estimates place the murdered at 100,000, and the decimated communities at 140.  The Emperor fined the cities where the atrocities occurred. The Rindfleisch massacres were, as Poliakov points out, the first attempt to hold all Jewry responsible for a crime—an aborted genocide.”
Flannery continues with still more on page 157. “Charges of ritual murder (number 1 libel) and ‘Host Desecration’ continued in this land where they seemed to have found a natural habitat, and some popular uprisings resulted.”
“It was not from within Poland, however, that finally came the “deluge” that submerged Polish Jewry and introduced into Jewish history perhaps its bloodiest decade (1648-58) since Biblical times. Again the Jews were caught in the cross-fire. In the Ukraine the Eastern Orthodox Cossacks hated not only the Polish Catholics who oppressed them but also their middlemen of alien faith, the Jews. In April of 1648, under Bogdan Chmielnicki, their hitman, they allied themselves with the Tartars and Zaporozhti and ravaged Poland in a most barbarous fashion, reserving their worst cruelties for the Jews. Margolis and Marx describe the happenings:
“Estates were devastated, manor-houses reduced to ashes, and human beings barbarously done to death. The victims were flayed and burned alive, mutilated and left to the agony of a lingering death. Infants were slit like fish or slaughtered at the breasts of their mothers or cast alive into wells. Women were ripped open and then sewed up again with live cats thrust into their bowels; many, married or unmarried, were violated before their menfolk, and those that were comely were carried away. Thousands of Jews perished in the towns east of the Dnieper.”
 
Can anything be worse!?!?! Once again, tears can be the only appropriate response!
 
Quotebit
Although we may not always be healthy, nor always prosperous, yet God is always good, and, therefore, there is always a sufficient argument for giving thanks.
-Charles Spurgeon

  In my last tidbit, I began addressing the three most often quoted lies used by “supposed Christians” in Medieval Europe to murder Jews. In ‘Why the Jews’,  Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin list the three lies:
1.Blood Libel or ‘Ritual Murder’. Jews draw blood from children and drink it during their celebrations, such as during Passover.
2.Jews poison Christians.
3.Jews kidnap the Communion wafer that is believed to be transubstantiated into the body of Jesus and then stick needles into it as a means of torturing Jesus.
 
   I allowed Prager and Telushkin to address the first lie, that of the “Blood Libel” in my last tidbit. Today they address the second lie, “Jews poison Christians”.
   On page 85, they write, ““If a king had a Jewish physician, notes James Parkes, “and did not actually perish on the battlefield, cloven in two by the battle-axe of the enemy, there is nothing surprising  in his unfortunate doctor being accused of poisoning him.” Parkes cites several instances of Jewish royal physicians being executed after a king’s death.”
   “In actuality almost every medieval Jewish doctor in Europe (and other Jews as well) was endangered. In 1161, in Bohemia, eighty-six Jews were burned as punishment for an alleged plot of Jewish physicians to poison the populace. Such accusations were endorsed by the leading intellectual circles in European society. In 1610, the medical faculty of the University of Vienna declared that Jewish physicians were bound by Jewish law to kill every tenth Christian through the use of drugs.”
   “Martin Luther said that “if they (the Jews) could kill us all, they would gladly do so, aye, and often do it, especially those who profess to be physicians. They know all that is known about medicine in Germany; they can give poison to a man of which he will die in an hour, or in ten to twenty years; they thoroughly understand this art.””
   “The libel that the Jews were continually plotting to poison the Christian world had particularly tragic results during the Black Death of 1348-49. This plague, which killed about one-third of Europe’s population, was blamed on the Jews despite the fact that the plague also killed Jews.”
   A Christian physician, Konrad of Regensburg, in his ‘Buch der Natur’, was one of the few Christians to recognize the irrationality of blaming the Jews: “But I know that there were more Jews in Vienna than in any other German city familiar to me, and so many of them died of the plague that they were obliged to enlarge their cemetery. To have brought this on themselves would have been folly on their part.” But the doctor’s reasoning had no impact.”
   “Jews were first tortured to confess to spreading the Black Death in Switzerland in September 1348. According to the “confession,” a rabbi had instructed the Jews: “See, I give you a little package, which contains a preparation of poison and venom… This you are to distribute among the wells, the cisterns and the springs…to poison the people who use the water.” A month later, the verdict against the Jews was announced: “all Jews from the age of seven cannot excuse themselves from this crime, since all of them in their totality were cognizant and are guilty of the above actions. Jewish children under the age of seven were then baptized and reared as Christians after their families were murdered.”
   First, the Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn10:10). The founding Pastor of our church often said, “Satan has many tools, but the lie is the handle to them all.” As Prager and Telushkin just demonstrated ‘a lie’ is one of those assertions that so often skips steps downward ending in murder and destruction.
   Second, in defiance of God’s word, these pseudo-Christians perpetrated three great evils:
i.lie. The should have read Colossians 3:9; James 3:14; Revelation 21:27.  
ii.vengeance. The should have read Romans 12:17-19.
iii.murder. The should have read 1John3:15.
 
    There is simply no way to describe this wicked behavior…as Christian---regardless of how they labelled themselves!!!! When these people stand before God to give account for their lives, I believe Matthew 7:22-23 will apply:
22.Many will say to me (Jesus) in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful  works?
23.And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
 
              
 
 
 
QuoteBit
I suggest you give more time than most Christians give to hear what God is saying to you through His word. If you do not take time for hearing, all you will do is read the Bible. Faith does not come by reading the Bible; it comes by hearing from God through the Bible. Hearing first, then faith.   -Derek Prince

  In conclusion, our late pastor, Carlton Arthurs often said, “The devil has many devices, but a lie is the handle to them all!” The ‘Blood Libel’ or ‘Jewish Ritual Murder’ is yet another lie of Satan, that sadly, ‘supposed’ Christians have marketed resulting in literally---thousands of Jewish murders! Only sincere repentance can bring forgiveness and deliverance!!! May God have mercy!!
  
  
*https://www.westernjournal.com/blood-libel-tlaib-shares-tweet-falsely-accusing-jews-murder-just-holocaust-remembrance-day/
 
Quotebit
“The greatest single cause of Atheism in the world today is Christians; who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
-Brennan Manning

  Authors Edward Flannery, who wrote “The Anguish of the Jews”; and Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin, who wrote “Why the Jews?” agree that up to 1000AD, things were relatively quiet regarding “Christian Anti-semitism”.* Prager and Telushkin write, “By the eleventh century (1000AD), the church had converted virtually all the inhabitants of Europe, except the Jews.** Until then, the situation of the Jews was tenuous but tolerable” (p79). Flannery writes, “The year 1000AD found Jews in conditions reasonably stable for the time”(p91).
  However, the same authors point to the year 1095-1096 as the birth of horror. Prager and Telushkin write, “With the First Crusade in 1096, however, the status and security of European Jewry declined precipitously” (p79). And, Flannery writes, “Though often surpassed by other years in the volume of atrocities, 1096 marks the beginning of a harassment of the Jews that, in duration and intensity, was unique in Jewish history” (p91).
  I repeat, 1096 was the year of the Ratisbon ‘First Crusade’. Flannery writes, “Great ill-organized hordes of nobles, knights, monks, and peasants-“God wills it” on their lips as they set off to free the Holy Land from the Muslim infidel—suddenly turned on the Jews. There were mutterings that the Crusaders might better start their work with the “infidels at home.” One chronicler, Guibert of Nogent (1053-1124) reported the crusaders of Rouen as saying: “we desire to combat the enemies of God in the East; but we have under our eyes the Jews, a race more inimical to God than all the others. We are doing this whole thing backward.” Turning this logic into action, the Crusaders fell upon the Jews in Rouen and other places in Lorraine, massacring those who refused baptism” (pg92).
  I have only one word “Unbelievable!” On the contrary, I do have a question for these Crusaders about the following phrases: “God wills it!” “Muslim infidel”; “infidels at home”; “enemies of God”; and especially the phrase: “the Jews, a race more inimical to God than all the others.” As Christians who derive inspiration to act from the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, from what verses do you derive the idea that we are to ‘kill the infidel’? And…“God wills it”?
  And especially regarding the comment that “the Jews are more inimical to God than all others”; please inform me when the following passage ceased. And, how? (Please carefully
 consider my highlights)
9.For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10.He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he (God) instructed him (His people), he kept him as the apple of his eye.  -Deut 32:9-10
Regarding Israel, the term of endearment: “apple of my eye” is repeated in Lamentations 2:18.
   Flannery writes, “All along the Rhine Valley the troops, urged on by preachers like Peter the Hermit, and antisemitic Count Emicho, and others offered Jewish communities the option of baptism or death.” I repeat, I wonder what verse these preachers in their sermons to support the call for: “baptism or death”? Were these preachers so ignorant of God’s word as to know that not only does forced conversion not work, but baptism does not save!?!?!
  Flannery continues, “At Speyer, thanks to the forceful action of Bishop John, ‘only’ ten were killed.” “At Worms, many Jews took refuge in the palace of Bishop Adalbert, while others remained in their homes, promised protection by their neighbors. The stronger forces of the Crusaders prevailed, however, and the majority of Jews were killed” (pg92).
   “Many Jews committed suicide rather than risk being baptized. Several hundred were massacred at Mainz, as once again Jewish parents sacrificed their children and themselves to “sanctify the Name.”” “A few, as was usual, were baptized. Cologne knew a momentary reprieve as Jews, with the aid of Archbishop Hermann, were hidden in Christian homes in seven villages of the diocese, only to be discovered later and murdered. In Ratisbon, the Crusaders forced the whole Jewish community into the Danube River and baptized them. Massacres occurred at Treves, Neuss, Ratisbon, in cities along the Rhine and the Danube, in Bohemia, and finally in Prague where Bishop Cosmas did his best to shield the Jews. In 1099 at journey’s end in Jerusalem the soldiers of Godfrey de Bouillon found the Jews assembled in a synagogue and set it ablaze.”
  “From January 1096 it is estimated that up to ‘10,000’ died, probably one-fourth to one-third of the Jewish population of Germany and Northern France at that time” (p93-94).
 
May God have mercy!!! I have only tears!!!!
 
*This does not mean there was no anti-semitism, I refer specifically to “Christian” anti-semitism.
**Of course, this is from the perspective of their “Judaism”. The actual truth is that many of the so-called converts at that time were not converts at all. An authentic Christian behaves like Jesus(1Cor11:1)! Did Jesus murder Jews? Absolutely not! He was Jewish! John 14:21 teaches if one loves Jesus, he must keep His commandments, i.e. the Word of God.

   I have spent the last 6 tidbits writing just ‘some’ of the terrible things past church leaders have said about Jews; however, those were just words! Now, what’s even worse…are the things that actually happened. In other words, whether the words of past ‘Christian’ leaders directly inspired the past horrendous violence against Jews or not, the acts of unmitigated terror—both past and present--require tears and introspection from every Christian…because as ongoing demonstrations around the world against Israel after the infamous October 7, 2023 Hamas attack testify--antisemitism is still alive and well!!
   Although there were many Catholic European Inquisitions, I would like to begin with what is arguably the most brutal: the Spanish Inquisition , beginning in 1478. Tragically, and of course unbiblically, the Spanish sought to uncover and destroy a “heresy” among baptized Jews. The Catholics created names for these Jews:
1.The Conversos, which referred to those Jews who were new converts.  
2.Marranos, which referred to those who were converts but still secretly
   practicing Judaism.
   The Church in Spain determined these groups needed to be watched closely to weed-out heretical practices. And, what was their heresy? “failure to eat pork; failure to work on Saturday; failure to where their best clothes on Sunday; keeping the Biblical feasts; observing Jewish customs of any kind; saying Jewish prayers; preparing food according to Jewish law; associating with non-baptized Jews; intermarriage of children of Marrano families with children of other Marrano families.”* Biblically, none of these things are heresy, but were invented accusations, unveiling the actually motive of the Inquisitions: antisemitism, i.e.Jew-hatred.
  Shockingly, many Jews were forced to adopt Spanish Catholicism to avoid torture, and even death. However, because conversion to Christ can only occur through love(2Cor5:14**) and free choice (Rom10:9,10); and because these Spanish Jews were converted by force, means more than likely, few became authentic Christians. And what’s worse, because these ‘so-called Christians’ tried to convert the Jews using force, means few of these Spanish Catholics were themselves ever actually converted to Christ!!
   Let’s allow Dr Michael Brown to continue to tell this absolute horror story. “Violators, or frequently those merely accused of being violators, would have their property confiscated. They would be subjected to harsh confinement and horrible torture, leading to mock trials, degradation and often death at the stake. If those sentenced to die would renounce their “heresies” and publicly confess ‘the Faith’, then the Church would show them mercy: they would be strangled and then put to the flame, burned dead instead of alive!”
“It is estimated that 30,000 Marranos were burned at the stake in Spanish Inquisitions from the fifteenth century until 1808. In addition to this, in 1492, all non-baptized Jews were expelled from the country. Stripped of their possessions, and without any means to defend themselves, the sentence of mass expulsion against these poor souls was virtually a sentence to mass death. Those who “converted” did not fare much better—they were treated as second-class citizens by the other Catholics, and just one wrong move could consign them to the fire.”  (pg78)
“Baptized Jews who wavered but then wanted to be reconciled to the Church were subjected to an act of penance called the “verguenza”(“shame”). They were paraded through the streets, men and women alike, bareheaded, barefooted, and naked to the waist. The procession was headed by a group of monks, followed by the half-naked penitents, cruel physical discomfort being added to their mental torture, for the weather was so raw and cold that it had been considered expedient to provide them with sandals, lest they should have found it impossible to walk.
   They held unlit candles in their hands (indicating that they were yet in spiritual darkness), and they were marched through the city until they arrived at the Cathedral. A chaplain would make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of these Jews---many of whom had been prominent citizens and respected leaders of their city before the Jew-hate craze erupted---and then he would recite these words: “Receive the Sign of the Cross which you denied, and which, being deluded, you lost.”
   After this, a sermon would be preached, and the sentence would be announced: They were to be whipped in procession on each of the following six Fridays, being naked to the waist, bareheaded and barefooted; they were to fast on each of those six Fridays, and they were disqualified for the rest of their lives from holding office, benefice, or honorable employment, and from using gold, silver, precious stones, or fine fabrics.
   When their six-week penance was completed, they had to give alms to the extent of one-fifth of the value of their property.
   THIS was how ‘the church’ treated those who returned to the fold!”  (pg78-79)
 
   Tens of thousands of Spanish Jews were humiliated, tortured, and murdered…in the NAME of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah! I have two questions:
            1.What scripture did these pseudo-Christians use to support these
                 actions?
            2.From what example of Jesus did they use to behave in this
​               manner?
 
   On the contrary, the people*** that did these things were demon-possessed!!!
 
 
*“Our Hands are Stained with Blood” Dr Michael Brown pg 77
** “…love of Christ controls us…” 2Cor5:14 (NAS)
***I will not call them Christians!!!

  In his great work “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy”, Eric Metaxas writes regarding Martin Luther: “In the beginning of his career, Luther’s attitude toward the Jews was exemplary, especially for his day. He was sickened at how Christians had treated the Jews.  In 1519 he (Luther) asked why the Jews would ever want to become converted to Christianity given the…
            ‘cruelty and enmity we wreak on them----that in our behavior
             towards them we less  resemble Christians than beasts?’” (pg 92)
Metaxas continues, “Four years later, in the essay ‘That Jesus Christ was born a Jew’, he (Luther) wrote, ‘If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They had dealt
with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings, they have done little else than deride them and seize their property.’”  (pg 92)

   Edward Flannery* continues quoting from Luther’s essay ‘That Jesus Christ was born a Jew’:
“They (the papists) have dealt with the Jews, as if they were dogs rather than human  beings….If the Apostles, who were also Jews, had dealt with us gentiles as we gentiles deal with the Jews there would never have been a Christian among the gentiles…we in our turn ought to treat the Jews in a brotherly manner in order that we might convert some of them…we are but gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws, they are blood relatives, cousins and brother of our Lord.” (pg152)
   However, Luther later dramatically changed from his previous opinions on the Jews; and Metaxas attempts to offer a reason: “For much of his adult life Luther suffered from constipation, hemorrhoids, a cataract in one eye, and a condition of the inner ear called Meniere’s disease, which results in dizziness, fainting spells, and tinnitus. He also suffered mood swings and depression. As his health declined, everything seemed to set him off. When a congregation sang anemically, he called them “tone-deaf sluggards” and stormed out. He attacked King Henry VIII as “effeminate” and blasted his theological opponents as “agents of the devil” and “whoremongers”. He called the pope “the Anti-Christ” and “a brothel-keeper above all brothel-keepers and all lewdness, including that which is not to be named.” He blasted the Catholic church’s regulation of marriage and accused the church of being “a merchant selling vulvas, genitals, and pudenda.” Expressing his attempt for the devil, he said that he would give him “a fart for a staff.” He viciously mocked Pope Clement III’s writings: “Such a great horrid flatus did the papal arse let go here! He certainly pressed with great might to let out such a thunderous flatus—it is a wonder that it did not tear his hole and belly apart.” “So it is in this context that one has to take his attitude toward the Jews, which, like everything else in his (Luther) life, unraveled along with his health.”   (pg93)
   Metaxas continues, “The troubles started in 1528 when, after a large meal of kosher food, he suffered a shattering attack of diarrhea. He concluded the Jews had tried to poison him. …In his last decade, his list of ailments ballooned to include gallstones, kidney stones, arthritis, abscesses on his legs, and uremic poisonings. Now his nastiness would hit its stride. He wrote in the vile treatise, ‘Concerning the Jews and Their Lies’, and the man who once described the Jews as “God’s chosen people” now called them “a base and whoring people.” “…three years before his death, Luther advocated actions against the Jews that included, among other things, setting fire to their synagogues and schools, destroying their houses, confiscating their prayer books, taking their money, and putting them into forced labor.” (pg93)
  Edward Flannery* offers his rendition on Luther’s treatise, “In 1542 he (Luther) published a tract “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies’ followed shortly thereafter another entitled ‘Shem Hamphoras’, in which he (Luther) raged at them in a language that at least equaled in violence anything uttered against them before or after. With biting sarcasm and occasional scatological insult, he renewed all the old charges of the past: Jews are poisoners, ritual murderers, usurers; they are parasites on Christian society; they are worse than devils; it is harder to convert them then Satan himself; they are doomed to hell. They are, in truth, the anti-Christ. Their synagogues should be destroyed, and their books seized; they should be forced to work with their hands; better they should be expelled by the princes from their territories.” “During his last years Luther made repeated efforts to have the German princes oppress and expel Jews. In his last sermon, delivered a few days before his death, he called urgently for their expulsion from all Germany.” (Pg152).
   Metaxas concludes, “One may only imagine what Luther’s younger self would have thought of such statements. But Goebbels and the other Nazis rejoiced that Luther’s ugliest ravings existed in writing, and they published them and used them with glee, and to great success…” (pg93).
   Even if we can explain Luther’s rantings and ravings by his ailments, his blasphemous words echo in eternity and cannot be excused…period! For this reason, Luther and John Chrysostom lead the way as the greatest of the historical ‘Christian’ antisemites!
   In conclusion, no human in history suffered like Christ, yet as our example, He offers us power to suffer with dignity (Heb12:4), by standing on the Word of God, dependent on the Holy Spirit! Therefore, I think it would have been so much better if Luther had chosen---in his sufferings---to declare the Word of God:
         
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. -Ps149:2
 
But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. -Isa 45:17
 
*Edward Flannery, ‘The Anguish of the Jews’

  Christian antisemitism is an oxymoron…and historically the church’s greatest sin! Christian antisemitism is simply an abomination…and to be honest--an embarrassment to my life as a Christian! However, no matter how difficult the fact of ‘Christian antisemitism’ may be---as followers of Christ, we must first face it, repent, allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts—and then ‘act’. One small step that our church does toward accomplishing the objective of ‘to act’ is to reach out to a couple of local Rabbis at synagogues near us with Christian love. A Chinese proverb declares, “A long journey begins with the first step.”
   Now, back to more difficult facts!
   Arguably…some of the greatest ‘Christian antisemitic’ statements made in antiquity were made by a preacher named John Chrysostom (344-407AD). However, before revealing his venom, I would like to offer a silver-lining. Once again using “The Anguish of the Jews”, author Edward Flannery writes, “…apparently some of his (Chrysostom) flock were frequenting synagogues and Jewish homes…”* After reading this, it gave me hope because--if true--this is evidence there were authentic followers of Christ in antiquity whom did not bow-the-knee to the plague of “Christian antisemitism”!
  Oftentimes when reading about ‘Christian antisemitism’ it can become overwhelming because not only is it difficult for any real Christian to accept the horror of its very existence, but that horror is exponentially magnified when it’s presented in such a manner as to cause us to think that it infects Christians everywhere, from the past to the present!! However, from Flannery’s previous statement regarding Christians “frequenting Jewish synagogues” in Chrysostom’s day, we now know that ‘like’ God reminded the prophet Elijah: “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal” (Rom11:4; 1Kgs19:18); so too, Flannery’s words on the Christians and Jews, encourage us to know that  God always has a remnant of His own who will stand against the evil in their day, including the evil of ‘Christian antisemitism’! Amen & Amen!
  Moving forward. After Chrysostom finds out about the actions of his members “frequenting Jewish synagogues”…he snaps! Chrysostom’s nickname was “Golden-mouth” which refers to his incredible speaking gift. Chrysostom also has a planning gift. So, to his shame, he turns his spirit, soul, mind, gifts, and energies to literally create a series of sermons, even breaking down each sermon into categories, to more effectively articulate his attack on the Jews!
  So….brace yourself, and buckle your seatbelt of horror!!
 
1.‘Accusations’.
“Of their rapine, their cupidity, their deception of the poor, of thieveries, and huckstering?” How can Christians dare “have the slightest converse” with Jews, “most miserable of all men”! Men who are “…lustful, rapacious, greedy, perfidious bandits.” Are they not “inveterate murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil” whom “debauchery and drunkenness have given them the manners of the pigs and the lusty goat. They know only one thing, so satisfy their gullets, get drunk, to kill and main one another.” Indeed, “they have surpassed the ferocity of wild beasts, for they murder their offspring and immolate them to the devil.” “They are impure and impious…”
 
2.The Synagogue. Flannery writes, “Not only is it a house of prostitution, but a cavern of brigands, a “repair of wild beasts”, a place of “shame and ridicule”, the “domicile of the devil, as is also the soul of the Jews”. Indeed Jews worship the devil; their rites are “criminal and impure;” their religion is “a disease”. Their synagogue, again is “an assembly of criminals…a den of thieves…a cavern of devils, an abyss of perdition.”
 
  Flannery continues.
3.“Why are the Jews degenerate?” “Because of their “odious assassination of Christ.” “This supreme crime lies at the roots of their degradation and woes.” “And for this decide, Chrysostom declares, there is “no expiation possible, no indulgence, no pardon.” “Vengeance is without end. Jews, moreover, will always remain without temple or nation. The rejection and dispersion of the Jews was the work of God, not the emperors: “It was done by the wrath of God and His absolute abandon of you”. “Thus will Jews live “under the yoke of servitude without end.” “God hates the Jews and always hated the Jews, and on Judgment Day He will say to Judaizers, “Depart from Me, for you have had intercourse with my murderers.” “It is the duty of Christians to hate the Jews: “He who can never love Christ enough will never be done fighting against those (Jews) who hate Him.” “Flee, then, their assemblies, flee their houses, and far from venerating the synagogue because of the books it contains hold it in hatred and aversion for the same reason.” “Chrysostom himself gives the example: “…I hate the synagogue precisely because it has the law and prophets.” “I hate the Jews also because they outrage the law…” *
  Remember, these statements represent only the ‘highlights’--maybe a better word is ‘highlows’---of his sermon series!!!
  So…what does God think about Chrysostom’s diatribe?
 
1.I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2.God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew…
                                   -Rom11:1-2 (NAS)
 
11.I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
12.Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!
                                               Rom11:11-12
 
For You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, O Lord, have become their God.
                                                                       -2Sam7:24 (NAS)
 
3.For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4.who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises
                                               -Rom9:3.4 (KJV)
 
Scatter & Regather
1.“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you,
2.and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons,
3.then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.
4.“If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.
5.“The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
6.“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
                       -Deut30:1-6 (NAS)
 
   The all-encompassing question is: Did Pastor John Chrysostom read any of these passages? Or, the literally hundreds of other passages just like them?
 
May God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy!!!
 
 
*“The Anguish of the Jews”, Andrew Flannery, pgs51-52
 
 
Quotebit
The Bible is the only book where the author must be present to understand it!
                                   -Jeremiah Ferguson, son of Pastor Collin Ferguson

     I believe one of the reasons the Church has not been as effective in doing the Great Commission is because we have not done it in THE WAY that Jesus commanded(Mat28:18-20)---to the Jew first (Rom1:16). Christian apathy has resulted in most churches having no relationship or connection with the Jews nor Israel. Just ask yourself the following question, does the pastor of your church preach about God’s “forever” calling upon Israel(2Sam7:24)? If not, why not? How is this evil even possible when the order of the Great Commission demands the gospel to go to the Jew FIRST?!?!
  However, I also believe that neglecting to take the gospel to the Jew FIRST is sin, and all sin, especially impenitent sin darkens (Lu11:34-35), obstructing further understanding, spiraling downward into further sin…and so on---aka lasciviousness (Gal5:19). Therefore, a consequence of the sin of neglecting to take the gospel to the Jew first has led downward into the sin of ‘Christian antisemitism’; and to say that its’ effect on both the Jew and Church has been, and is horrific…is vastly understated!!!
 
  Now…back to the topic at hand!
 
  Let’s continue from the last tidbit with author Edward Flannery quoting two more “Christians” who possessed antisemitic views. On page 50 of his book ‘The Anguish of the Jews’, he writes, “St Gregory of Nyssa (331-396AD), with wanton eloquence, describes the Jews as “slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies of God, haters of God, adversaries of grace, enemies of their fathers’ faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, leaven of the Pharisees, congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, stoners, and haters of good.”
 “St Gregory makes it abundantly clear that this century has added a new note of contempt to the Christian image of the Jew. St Jerome (340-420AD) meanwhile still exemplifies the strange ambivalence that marked the Christian attitude at this time: while continuing his personal relations with rabbis and even seeking lessons in Hebrew from them, he upbraids Jews in his writings as serpents, haters of all men, Judases. Their Psalms and prayers, he states, are the “braying of donkeys” and “they curse Christians in their synagogues.””
  Let’s examine the words of these two Christian “saints”. After reading his statement, the similarities of words used make it obvious that St Gregory takes some of his views from Jesus in Matthew 23. However, remember that all error possesses a modicum of truth; for even when the devil lies, he must use truth. If we look at Matthew 23, the context is a rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees for their hypocrisy. For example, in Matthew 23:29, Jesus calls the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites; in Matthew 23:30,31 He reminds them of their being sons of those who murdered the prophets. In Matthew 23:33, He calls them serpents and vipers; in verse 34, He again reminds them of their murderous ways, along with those whom they beat and persecuted in their synagogues. I repeat, both St Gregory and St Jerome use some of Jesus words in Matthew 23—to attempt to support their antisemitism.
  However, what both “saints” miss is that after Jesus harshly rebukes the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:1-36, He turns the context to the purpose of His rebuke in verses 37-39…which is Israel. In other words, in these three short verses, in the same context of His rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus laments over ‘Jerusalem’, by which he means ‘Israel’. In other words, Jesus uses a word picture of a hen gathering her chicks to herself to remind Israel—including these scribes and Pharisees—that although they are all guilty of murdering the prophets—like He sovereignly put away David’s sin with Bathsheba, He will also put away Israel’s sin! When? When they say “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”(23:39 taken from Ps118:26). And Why? Because of His ‘forever’ covenant with the Jew(Jer31:34-37)!
  David’s prayer in 2Samuel 7:22-24 perfectly illustrates God’s unique calling upon Israel, while simultaneously revealing the errors of Gregory and Jerome:
22.Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23.And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24.For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.
 
  First, David establishes his prayer upon the very Sovereignty of God in verse 22. In other words, David is declaring that everything I’m about to pray has its’ origin in:
a.The Greatness of God; which itself originates in…
b.The uniqueness of God, Who alone rules, having no equal!
  Second, and most profound, are verses 23 and 24, where the Bible declares 5 different times:
              1.“whom God went to redeem to be his people”
              2.“to make him a name”
              3.“whom thou redeemedst to Thee from Egypt”
              4.“Thou hast confirmed to Thyself your people Israel”
              5.“to be a people unto thee forever”
These incredible…marvelous…unbelievable statements teach that God links Israel as a people with “HIMSELF” i.e.the very NATURE of God!!!
 In other words, God declares because there is no other God beside Him; and because He is the only Sovereign—He made Israel His own! In other words again, in the same way ‘as’ there is no other God—the Sovereign God reserved Israel for Himself!
  God has never made a statement like this about another people! This revelation alone destroys antisemitism…by offering God’s strong opinion on His people…Israel!!!
 
  On the contrary, where antisemitism exists, the Bible offers the reason:
“Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint…” (Pro29:18NIV)…and I repeat, “casting off restraint” was the error of Gregory and Jerome.
 
 
Quotebit
"Pray until you can pray; pray to be helped to pray and do not give up praying because you cannot pray. For it is when you think you cannot pray that is when you are praying."  
-Charles Spurgeon

   Today I get into the nitty-gritty of some of the examples of ‘Christian antisemitism.’ At this point, I can only report on what happened, not why it happened. I want to begin with a quote recorded by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin on page 120 of their book ‘Why The Jews’ which so tragically sums up ‘Christian’ antisemitism that caused me to weep when I first read it:
“Thus Montesquieu in his essay, ‘The Spirit of Laws’, powerfully denounced ‘Christian anti-semitism’ by condemning the Portuguese Inquisition* through the mouth of a persecuted Jew: “You put us to death, who believe only what you believe, because we do not believe all that you believe. We follow a religion, which you yourselves know to have been formerly dear to God. We think that God loves it still, and you think that He loves it no more; and because you judge this, you make those suffer by sword and fire, who hold an error so pardonable as to believe that God loves what he once loved.””
  
  I have only one response: May God have mercy!!!
 
   Author Edward Flannery says there is debate over the degree of antisemitism prior to the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine who converted to Christianity in 329AD. However, before Constantine’s death in 337AD, ‘Christian’ antisemitism was on the rise. 
   Edward Flannery quotes several church leaders, “In the first half of the fourth century, Eusebius of Caesarea (340AD) in two massive volumes presented a review of Jewish history founded on the distinction between “Hebrews” and “Jews.” The Hebrews were considered primitive Christians, thus the patriarchs; the Jews, a less worthy people from the Law of Moses was a necessity. Hilary of Poiters (367AD) similarly reinterpreted Jewish history for the purpose of proving Jews a perpetually perverse people, despised by God.” “St Ephraim(373AD)…. inserted contemptuous references to Judaism in his liturgical hymns calling the Synagogue, for example, a “harlot.”  “St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386AD) an ardent preacher, denounced the Jews from the pulpit and wrote offensively of the Jewish partriarchate, which he considered a shameful institution. And St. Epiphanius (310-403AD), one of the great early heresiologists, in his analysis of Judaeo-Christian heresies did not hide his feeling for one group, the Herodians, who are the “real Jews because they are indolent and dishonest.” (pg49)**
    The first question I have for these ‘Christian leaders’ is…what is the source of your condemnation and hatred? Did you have negative experiences with the Jews in your area? If so, my second question is how are you as Christians to handle such difficult people? Even our enemies? The answer is easy but not simple.  Jesus declared in Matthew 5:44,45: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;45.That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…” Verse 45 elucidates everything. The text declares to be a child of our Father, we must do verse 44…first!!! In addition, Romans 2:4 declares “…the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” The Greek word for “goodness” is kindness. In other words, to win the lost to Christ we must often endure their abuse, yet still show them kindness, for the Holy Spirit to lead them to repentance! Did these ‘Christians’ even bother to read Matthew 5:44-45 and Romans 2:4?
   As Christians, we are supposed to read the Bible and apply it to our lives. I would like to conclude by asking the aforementioned ‘supposed Christians’*** a few more questions about the following passages:
 
1.“Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles” (Ps25:22). Did you either pray or act on these words from God?
 
2.“For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.”  (Deut32:9,10) God calls His people (Israel/Jews) “His portion”; “His inheritance”; and the “apple of His eye”…yet---YOU attack them?!?!
 
3.“O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.” (Ps115:9) God promises to be Israel’s “help and their shield”. I wonder how you will answer God regarding Him being the Jew’s “help and their shield”?

4.In Psalms 83, Israel’s enemies declared: “They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”
 
…in that same chapter…Asaph responded using the prayer of imprecation:
13.O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!
14.As a fire burns a forest and as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
15.chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest.
16.Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord.
17.Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace.
18.Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the Most High,  supreme over all the earth.
 
I repeat, may God have mercy upon ‘supposed Christian’*** antisemites’!!!
 
  
*Spain instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 before decreeing the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492. Tens of thousands of Spanish Jews fled Spain, including to Portugal, where King John II granted them asylum in return for payment. However, the asylum was withdrawn after eight months, with the Portuguese government decreeing the enslavement of all Jews who had not left Portugal. Marcus, Jacob (1938). The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315-1791. p. 61.
 
**Edward H. Flannery (August 20, 1912 – October 19, 1998) was an American priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, and the author of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, first published in 1965. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Flannery)
 
***I use the word “Christian” loosely because I do question the salvation of these early so-called Christians for some of the things they did and said.