The Blight of Anti-Semitism

Editor’s Note: If you filled a room with 453 people taken from a representative cross section of the world’s population, only one would be Jewish. Gentiles outnumber Jews 453 to 1.

World War II had barely ended when the June 1951 issue of Israel My Glory tackled these questions in an article by Rev. F. H. Ferris, D.D., of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The flame of anti-Semitism is sweeping the world like a forest fire. And the saddest fact of all is that many professing Christians are fanning the flame. But they never admit to themselves or anyone else that they are anti-Jewish. We cannot afford to be neutral on this issue. We must be against anti-Jewish feeling in order to be definitely on the side of fair treatment for God’s people, the Jews.

Anti-Semitism is madness, as well as wickedness. It is against God’s fixed purpose. He chose Abraham of old and appointed that the prophets and writers of Scripture should be from that small nation; and He ordained that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, who was God over all (Rom. 9:5) and yet “manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16) to save sinners, should be born of that race. He has ordained that Jerusalem shall be the metropolis of the earth, the city of the King of Israel.

For no other city as for Jerusalem has God Himself urged His people’s prayer so definitely: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love thee” (Ps. 122:6). And “ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isa. 62:6–7).

Can you find such striking language as to a theme for prayer anywhere else? Surely not.

Who hath hardened himself against God and prospered? Pharaoh tried (Ex. 5—14). He was an anti-Semite, and what was his end? Haman hated Israel and sought to solve the “Jewish question” in his own wicked way. Mark his ignominious death: He was hung on his own gallows, where he had hoped to hang a prominent Jew, Mordecai (Est. 3—7). Why? The Word of God gives the answer: “Because he laid his hand upon the Jews” (Est. 8:7). God will blight the life and ministry of any Christian who is guilty of stirring up anti-Jewish feeling. God Himself has promised the Jewish people, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Gen. 12:3).

Where are Earth’s daring would-be dictators who once set themselves against Israel? They are broken and laid low in utter ignominy and shame. God has a controversy with all nations and has anointed His King upon His holy hill of Zion (Ps. 2:6). The only personal hope for us as sinners is Christ; and the only hope for the earth is Christ, as Ruler over all. And He will not be without His Israel. One day all Israel will, with tears of repentance, “look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son” (Zech. 12:10).

The Scapegoat Mentality
After Adam sinned, he blamed his trouble on Eve; and Eve blamed her trouble on the Devil. Ever since then, mankind has constantly been looking for someone whom it could blame for the consequences of sin. The world is looking for a scapegoat. It has picked the Jews.

Satan is the arch anti-Semite. He hates the Jewish people because it is through them that God has given the world His Holy Word. And it was through a Jewish mother that the Son of God was born into the world to be the Savior of all who accept Him into their hearts. And the Bible says that when the Lord Jesus comes again, the Jewish people will accept Him as their Messiah; and they will bring untold blessing to all the world. The promise of God’s Word is, “He shall cause those who come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isa. 27:6).

No wonder Satan has a special hatred for God’s Chosen People. Satan has been the inspirer of all anti-Semites, big and little, from Pharaoh of Egypt to Hitler of Germany. And when Satan’s final Master-Man, the Antichrist, appears on the scene of history, he will first make and then break a covenant with the Jews (Dan. 9:27). He will lead the armies of the nations against Jerusalem (Zech. 12:1–3); and his battle cry will be, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (Ps. 83:4).

Thank God, Satan will not succeed in his evil purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ will return to Earth and throw the Antichrist and all his followers into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:17–21). God will rescue the Jewish people, and they will mourn their rejection of Messiah and receive Him as their Savior (Isa. 25:9; Zech. 12:10).

People who purposefully or unwittingly fan the flame of anti-Semitism are helping to prepare the way for the coming of Antichrist. They are caught in Satan’s anti-Semitic trap and must humble themselves, repent deeply, and confess their sin, so they may break free from the snare of the Devil.

The Escalation to Anti-Christism
God has cursed anti-Semitic nations. God said to Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Gen. 12:3). Therein lies the summation of world history. Nations that have been kind to the Jewish people have enjoyed God’s blessing. And those that have mistreated the Jewish people have experienced God’s curse. Hitler’s Germany set out to destroy the Jews of Europe. It succeeded in destroying six million European Jews. But what has happened to Germany and her co-destroyers? And all of God’s accounts are not settled yet!

It begins with anti-Semitism and ends up in anti-Christism. God’s Word says to the Jewish people, “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8). Also, “All they that devour thee shall be devoured” (Jer. 30:16). Hatred of Jewish people soon turns to hatred of God Himself. Anti-Semitism soon becomes anti-Godism and anti-Christism.

The cure for anti-Semitism is to have a real love for and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to fulfill God’s promise to the Jewish people (Mt. 15:24), to weep for them (Lk. 19:41–44), and die on the cross of Calvary for them and all mankind (1 Jn. 2:2). And when Jesus comes back to Earth to reign, He will judge the nations according to their treatment of His brethren, the Jewish people (Mt. 25:31–46).

No one who truly loves and obeys the Lord Jesus Christ can do or say or write anything that kindles hatred for the Jews.

Let us answer the following questions in our own hearts: What causes a wall between Jew and Gentile? What causes prejudice and dislike all over the world? Why do those who name the name of Jesus Christ permit themselves to be indifferent to the needs of the Jewish people?

Paul asks in Romans 11:1, “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” Never. God has not cast away His people; He has predestinated His people. But not all were true to God, and He let their eyes be darkened. Have they stumbled to their ruin? Never. The truth is, by their lapse, salvation has passed to the Gentiles. If their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they are all come in? So far as the gospel goes, they are enemies of God—which is to your advantage; but so far as election goes, they are beloved for their father’s sake.

Let us pray and show kindness to the Jewish people. Among the Bible prayer commands we find, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love thee” (Ps. 122:6). When we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, we are praying for the coming of the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. Until He comes and reigns in Jerusalem over the Jewish people and all the world, neither Jerusalem nor the world will have lasting peace.