Antisemitism
For almost two thousand years, the Jewish people have been targeted by a form of hatred that is unique in human history - from the twisted interpretations of the New Testament fostered by the early Church to Crusades, Inquisitions, pogroms and finally the Holocaust. There is no avoiding the issue: antisemitism is ugly, and it has been either actively carried out or passively cheered on by the institution of the Church throughout the centuries. How did a faith that originated in the Jewish world come to represent such a great threat to Jewish life? Antisemitism is indeed a blight upon history - and particularly upon the history of the Christian people.
The sad thing is that antisemitism separates not only the Jew from the Christian, but also separates the Christian from his own professed faith. It is the litmus test of the Christian, for only a false or unfaithful Christian would approve of a policy that is deadly to the Jewish people. The Jewish writer Sholem Asch writes in his book One Destiny - An Epistle to the Christians, "Anti-Semitism is not a movement. It is a disease. He who is infected by it is unable to have an orientation, a judgment or an opinion. He...is ruled by his disease, the name of which is anti-Semitic insanity."
Hatred of Jews is not merely an unpleasant quirk. It has profound spiritual ramifications that go beyond religious and ethnic hatred, striking at the heart of the bond between the Jew and the true Christian. But just as the false Christian is known by his hatred of the Jewish people, the true Christian stands out by his love for the Lord's Chosen People.
At Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and museum in Israel, there is a grove of trees along what is called "The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations." It silently testifies that the choice of the true Christian is to stand by the Jewish people even at the cost of life itself. The true Christian is bound to love the Jewish people if for no other reason than the fact that Jesus himself is Jewish and the New Testament plainly declares that God's choice of the Jewish people cannot be negated (Romans 11:1-5).
These fundamental truths should have a profound impact on how Christians understand themselves and the role of the Jewish people. The more Christians understand the Jewish roots of their faith, the more they will appreciate the Jewish people. And the more Jewish people understand that believing in Jesus does not negate Jewish identity, the better equipped they will be to weigh honestly the claims of the New Testament.
For the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament agree on this: that there is no one who may be called righteous (Psalm 143:2). However, the Good News is that it was for our forgiveness and healing that Jesus, the promised Messiah, came to us.
