Anti-Semitism is Horrible Sin
Some things have to be repeated over and over. This is one of them. Respect of persons is a sin. Racism is a sin. And for the same reasons, anti-semitism is a sin.
There are basic biblical principles that apply here.
Choices of blessing and cursing belong to God, not man.
God’s choice to bless Isaac with the Abrahamic covenant was God’s alone (Genesis 12 and 15). Human beings do not get to veto God’s choices. He also chose to make a “many nations” promise to Ishmael which has been fulfilled to this day. In this same way, God chose to bless Jacob and reject Esau. While Esau’s personal choices give human impetus, the decision to bless Jacob over Esau occurred in the sovereign mind of the Creator. The result was God’s blessing on the Israelites. And yet, over time, God dealt with each nation according to their sins.
This is God’s doing not man’s. His requirement of humanity is to treat every human being with justice (Deuteronomy 27:19)
Respect of persons in outreach violates the command of God to Peter.
In Acts 10 the New Testament mission of the church was opened up to the Gentiles in a particularly dramatic way. The principle Jesus taught with the various non-kosher foods dropping from heaven is that what God declares to be clean cannot be declared to be unclean by mankind. The redemptive plan of God is a world-wide plan. It is for people of the entire earth—all people, every tribe, language, and nation. No one should be excluded in those redemptive efforts and no one should be treated as inferior.
There is no difference between believers in Christ.
Respect of persons was a key issue in the early church. It is interesting how respect of persons is a sin that can easily switch extremes. At first, it was the Jews wanting to exclude the Gentiles from the covenant community—or to place gospel-denying restrictions upon them– rejecting Gentiles as inferior and unclean. However, in the history of the organized church that sin has switched, with the Jews being rejected as unworthy of the gospel, or as unworthy of equal protection and treatment in the culture. It is a sin in both instances.
The Catholic Church and many protestant groups persecuted Jews under the ridiculous pretext that the Jews killed Jesus. Jesus was a Jew and if it were not for the Jews we would have not faith. The Romans had as much of a part in killing Jesus as anyone did. But Jesus clearly said He was voluntarily laying down His life for mankind. No one could have killed Jesus had it not been for the redemptive plan of God. We all killed Jesus. He dies for the sins of the entire human race. There is no particular group of people upon whom blame can be pinned.
Throughout history, there has been an attack on Israel and the Jews
The Bible communicates this with the story of Esther, which clearly illustrates the pattern of anti-Semitism perpetrated upon the Jews throughout history. It was repeated many times, but most recently with Nazi Germany in the mid-twentieth century. It is now rising again. Be careful that you understand the realities of the details of the Hamas/Israel war. Today, Israel is fighting for its very existence, as Hamas pushes for the destruction of Israel and its citizens. The present fully participating citizens of Israel include Palestinians, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bedouins and more.
This does not mean that the nation of Israel gets carte blanche approval for everything it does—God has never given his chosen nation a blank check. However, true justice should be color-blind, gender-blind, faith-blind, and ethnically blind.
Today’s anti-Semitism is a propaganda machine fed by religious hatred and misinformation. Christians not only must avoid being consumed by it, but also must stand against it. While self-interest should not be our motivation, those who come for them will eventually come for us if we do not stand against it now.
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