WHAT!! …Christian Antisemitism’?!?! -2

  Last week my tidbit was not an attempt to justify Christianity’s record of persecution of Jews but to better understand how it could happen. The persecution of Jews, i.e.antisemitism--is unequivocally sin—period—no excuse, no exception to the rule. Antisemitism by Christians can never be justified! Any attempt to justify sin---can never possess forgiveness, deliverance or reconciliation. On the contrary, sin must first be acknowledged and then followed by repentance. My objective in this series is to unveil the sin of antisemitism…with a special focus on the church--past and present---for the express purpose of reconciliation! Why? God’s word has the answer:
“Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.”                  -Ps102:13
 
The Word of God declares there is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl3:1). Because God uses signs to reach humans (Gen1:14; Heb2:4), I believe God is using the massacre of October 7, 2023, as a sign to unveil the condition of the heart of contemporary man toward the Jew; which tragically but simultaneously reveals where we presently stand on God’s timeline. October 7th, perfectly unveiled the hidden evil in the heart of millions of people across the globe regarding the Jew---which I repeat, by default is a mirror in the heart of people regarding God! Remember, the principle God gave to Balaam in Numbers 22:12- “And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” In other words, if one curses what God has blessed, the curse will return to him! God declared to Abraham regarding Israel, “I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you!” (Gen12:3).
  Moving forward. In part 1 of this series, I promised to use the book “Why the Jews?” by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin for this series. Yet, as I thought about it, I have decided to add things from the book, “The Anguish of the Jews” by Edward Flannery, too.
  Let’s begin! The Jews/Israel—by far--have been the most persecuted people group in the history of the world---and it’s not even close! There is simply no way to argue against this fact without being either dishonest or irrational. Although Christians have been persecuted since the time Jesus ascended into heaven 2,000 years ago, we are a distant second to the Jews in being hated by the world!
   Jew-hatred is so universal that a name was invented to describe it: ‘antisemitism’! Regarding the term antisemitism, Prager and Telushkin write, “The term antisemitism was coined in 1879 by Wilheim Marr, an anti-Jewish spokesman in Germany, as a euphemistic substitute for Judenhass, Jew-hatred. The term is a misnomer, of course, since it has nothing to do with Semites” (Why the Jew? pg199). But Why? The word ‘Semite’ originates from the first son of Noah: Shem. From Shem ultimately came Abraham, who was the father of both Ishmael and Issac. From Isaac came Jacob and Esau. And from Jacob came 12 sons: 1.Reuben, 2.Simeon, 3.Levi, 4.Judah(by Leah); 5.Dan, 6.Naphtali (by Bilhah); 7.Gad, 8.Asher (by Zilpah); 9.Issachar, 10.Zebulun (and Dinah) (by Leah); 11.Joseph, 12.Benjamin (by Rachel). From the 12 sons of Jacob descended Israel; or…the Jews!
  On the other hand, from Abraham through Ishmael descended the Arabs. Therefore, in reality, the Arabs and the Jews are both Semites or Semitic. However, from its inception, the term ‘antisemitism’ refers only to the Jews---not the Arabs! Once again, why? Because of Wilheim Marr, a Jew-hater, who first coined the term! Therefore, the definition of antisemitism is Judenhass, which means Jew-hatred! I repeat, at its foundation—antisemitism is restricted to the definition of hatred for the Jew! Tragically, Jew-hatred has absolutely nothing to do with any actions of the Jew---good or bad---but is completely dependent on the identity of the Jew! For this reason…antisemitism, i.e.Jew-hatred is unique!!
 
 
Quotebit
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”                  -Thomas Sowell, Economist, Historian