Editor’s Note: As we mark another Holocaust Memorial Day, we thought it would be appropriate to republish this article on Lessons to Learn from the Jewish Holocaust. Today’s post was originally published on January 27, 2016.

The Holocaust has been described as the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and mass murder of European Jews and other groups carried out by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945. In fact the term Holocaust referred to as the Shoah, comes from a religious term referring to sacrifices totally burned on the altar and offered to God.

Many researchers and historians have spent lifetimes attempting to make sense of the Holocaust, and we believe the search for answers will continue to not only remember and honor the victims but through trying to comprehend how a civilized and most educated culture could lose all sense of humanity.

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor said that:

The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment—or as the Nazis liked to say, “of blood and soil.” I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other of Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.

The truth is Jews have suffered greatly throughout the ages and many others have also been victims of indescribable brutality. Winston Churchill described the uniqueness of the Holocaust and the Final Solution as probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world.

Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt points out two reasons why the German program of genocide remains in a class by itself as an example of evil:

It was the only time in recorded history that a state tried to destroy an entire people, regardless of an individual’s age, sex, location, profession, or belief. And it is the only instance in which the perpetrators conducted this genocide for no ostensible material, territorial, or political gain.

So what does the Jewish Holocaust teach us? In his book, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons we must Learn from Nazi Germany, Dr. Erwin Lutzer warns that if we think there is nothing to learn from it the Holocaust or Nazi Germany, we should think again:

When truth is rejected in the public sphere, the state will either turn to some semblance of natural law or more ominously to lies. Secular values will be imposed on society, and it will be done in the name of “freedom and tolerance.

First of all, it has been said that this is an age of tolerance–tolerance for everything except Christianity. The so-called social planners who are reshaping Western society according to purely humanistic values agree with Hitler that God and religion must be removed from all spheres of life. Religion most notably Christianity must be ousted from government, law, education, and the workplace.

At this moment we can see that most politicians have turned away from God as the source of salvation, life, and liberty. We are calling evil good and good evil, lawlessness, immorality, and evil are encouraged in society, there is injustice, and the law has been perverted. Therefore, as families, churches and other Christian organizations, we should be prepared to defend the truth, justice, and righteousness when our turn comes to stand.

Secondly, it matters to learn from it because the Jewish Holocaust happened to people like us, not just because the Jews are perfect people. Not at all, we are all fallen human beings who need the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ but the Lord promised Abraham that through him all nations and families of the earth would be blessed.

The whole world has enjoyed many blessings through the Jewish people. But the greatest blessing is the gift of salvation through God’s Son Jesus Christ. There will be other great blessings that are yet to be fulfilled when Jesus Christ will be King over the all the earth and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:7).

All nations of the earth will be blessed under the reign of Israel’s Jewish Messiah from Jerusalem. It is an undeniable fact that the destiny of every human being alive today and every nation on this earth is linked to the destiny of this tiny nation.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12: 3-4 KJV).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer prophetically warns us:

Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah of the Israelite-Jewish people, and for that reason, the line of our forefathers goes back beyond the appearance of Jesus Christ to the people of Israel. Western history is, by God’s will, indissolubly linked with the people of Israel, not only genetically but also in a genuine uninterrupted encounter. The Jew keeps open the question of Christ. He is the sign of the free mercy-choice and of repudiating wrath of God Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off (Romans 11:22). That is why an expulsion of the Jews from the West must necessarily bring with it the expulsion of Christ. For Jesus Christ was a Jew.

Thirdly, one of the most important lessons history teaches is never to dismiss anything as impossible. Perhaps the most terrible sin of all is not that those who murdered the Jews said what they planned to do, but that the world didn’t listen. Maybe we’ve got to learn to hear even the things we don’t want to hear.

In his book, The Oak and The Calf, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who sustained long years of imprisonment and exile in Russia wrote that:

I may say that my whole life has trained me to expect the worst much more often than not, I am always readier, more willing to believe, the worst. In the camp I took to heart the Russian proverb: “Don’t let good luck fool you or bad luck frighten you.” I have learned to live by this rule and I hope never to depart from it.

May be we should learn to live by that rule as well and respond to evil before it is too late. 

Finally, the fourth lesson is that many people are saying that that the Holocaust never happened and there appears to be a return of anti-Semitism in Europe, United States, and other nations. The Jewish people once again are quickly becoming the scapegoats of humanity. Why the hatred, yet there is overwhelming evidence of what really happened? In a speech delivered in 1985, Richard Von Weizsaecker the President of Germany made this thought-provoking statement:

The Jewish nation remembers and will always remember. We seek reconciliation. Precisely for this reason we must understand that there can be no reconciliation without remembrance. The experience of million fold death is part of the very being of every Jew in the world, not only because people cannot forget such atrocities, but also because remembrance is part of the Jewish faith.

According to the Holy Scriptures particularly the Torah remembrance is part of the Jewish faith. Over and over again, as the nation of Israel prepared to cross the river Jordan and enter the Promised Land, Moses solemnly charged them to remember. They were to remember where they came from and how God delivered them:

And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:15).

There were to remember how they had come:

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not (Deut.8:2).

The Lord warned them that even in prosperity and success they were not to forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt. But this lesson wasn’t learned, and this attitude of independence, pride and ingratitude were repeated.

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: (Deut. 7:18) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven (Exodus 17:14).

The history of Israel proves that the sin of forgetfulness is a deadly sin, both to an individual and to nations. We should be deeply disturbed by how quickly many people have forgotten what happened. It’s even appalling and shocking that when you ask what people know about this dark period in human history, many are completely ignorant. George Orwell is quoted to have said:

Whoever controls the image and information of the past determines what and how future generations will think; whoever controls the information and images of the present determines how those same people will view the past.

The only way we can learn from the past is to study history. Remembering the past always helps us to understand the present. And to make the most of the present, we’ve got to try to use the knowledge learned from the past which is gone to create a better future which is still a mystery.

That is why the Bible speaks the language of remembering. God kept on reminding the Jews to remember what happened. What their ancestors taught them so that they could teach it to their children and eventually to the whole world.

The Bible tells us “The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17: 9) Here again, Dr.Erwin Lutzer reminds us that:

Evil held in check by God often erupts when the conditions are right. When the restraints are gone, when people are desperate, and when power is up for grabs, the human heart is laid bare for all to see. We are naive if we think Nazi Germany cannot happen again. In fact the Bible predicts that it will…

Do we think the anti-Semites of yesterday are completely different human beings to the ones of today? Something to think about!

Martin Luther’s attitude toward the Jews took different forms during his lifetime. He had a great influence on what it meant to be a Christian in German, but unfortunately, this influence was used by the Nazis many years later to mislead many.

It is been said that ideas have consequences that bless or destroy. People’s behavior good or bad does not come out of nowhere. It comes from prevailing views of reality that take root in the mind and bring forth good or evil. So when it came to the Jews, Luther outlined a plan for dealing with the Jews that the Nazis exploited.

Luther thought the Jews would be on his side; at first, his attitude towards the Jews was very good. He was even frustrated at how the Catholic Church had treated the Jews. In 1519 he asked why Jews would ever want to become converted to Christianity given the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them. He wrote that:

The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; Jesus Christ was born a Jew. If it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, they belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a Jew. They have 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. I hope that if one deals with the Jews in a kindly way and instructs them carefully from Holy Scripture, many of them will become genuine Christians and turn to the faith of their fathers, the prophets and patriarchs.

Luther believed beyond reasonable doubt that the Jews could convert to the Christian faith and he like the apostle Paul hoped to give them the inheritance that was meant for them in the first place, before we the Gentiles were grafted in. The Bible declares that Salvation belongs to the Jew first (see Romans 1:16).

He continued dealing with them in Christian love, but he probably knew they would not all be converted. But this did not bother him, as he said, “If some of them are still stiff-necked, what does it mean? After all, we are not all good Christians either.”

His pamphlet “That Jesus Christ was born a Jew” exemplified a man who really cared about Jews and his writings were read and circulated. However, this good attitude towards the Jews didn’t last long. He thought he could win the Jews with a few kind words. When this did not happen he was bitterly disappointed.

Luther was even disgusted with the letter of James, claiming it contained nothing evangelical and failed to show Christ. (In fact, Christ is only mentioned twice in the whole letter.)  According to notable Bible Teacher David Pawson,

Luther called it a ‘right strawy epistle’, meaning that there is no corn in it, just straw, which is just about as insulting a remark as you can make. He said, ‘I do not believe it is apostolic. It would be better not to have it in the New Testament.’ When he translated the Bible, he put James in an appendix at the end, together with Hebrews, Jude and Revelation. He didn’t quite have the courage to cut it right out, but he shifted it out of the main text.

In his assessment of the letter, Martin Luther completely missed the point. He said it contradicts Paul and all the other Scriptures, but Luther was no more infallible than the Pope he opposed. He was too focused on the doctrine of justification by faith to see how important James’ emphasis really was. Faith must act and be worked out. What God has worked in has to be worked out in the world, in an alien atmosphere.

Was Martin Luther Anti-Semitic?

It has been claimed by historians that for much of his adult life, Luther suffered from various diseases which probably caused mood swings and depression.

As his health deteriorated, everything seemed to frustrate him. So in all probability, it could have been his health problems and his disappointment with the obstacles that the Reformation was facing or other probable causes. Some have written that he was not an anti-Semite and that his motives for dealing with this subject were religious. The Word of God was His greatest treasure; this love for the Word prompted him to react violently when others disrespected the Scriptures.

All this may have affected Luther, but again, all these are only part of the picture. When he wrote his vile treatise “Against the Jews and their Lies” he called them a base and whoring people.” So how could he write that if at all he wasn’t anti-Semitic? He might not have had a special hatred for Jews but could have been offended by their rejection of Christ.

He also had a strong language and he did not reverse this harsh language for the Jews alone. He used it on Muslims, Catholics and fellow Protestants. Luther called princes, “the greatest fools and worst knaves on earth” monks, tame dogs that lie on pillows and whistle with their hind ends.”

He also said of his own people, “I know that we Germans are brutes and stupid swine.” At one point he called reason “the devil’s whore.” He blasted the Catholic Church’s regulation of marriage and accused the church of being “a merchant selling vulva.” He attacked King Henry VIII as “feminine in appearance” and blasted his theological opponents as “agents of the devil” and “whore mongers.”His language became fouler and fouler.

In spite of the fact that Luther was anti-Semitic; the Lutheran Church was a remarkable one, a church which existed against the wishes of the man who founded it. Luther did not want a church named after him. Luther felt that all those who believed in Jesus should be called Christians. He felt that having many sects divided God into many gods. Richard Wumbrand considered Luther a split personality because, although anti-Semitic, he wrote some beautiful things about Jews:

We shouldn’t treat the Jews so badly, he said, because among them are future Christians…if the apostles, who also were Jews, had treated us, the Gentiles, as we treat the Jews, no Gentile would have ever become a Christian.

But we should consider the history of anti-Semitism as well. Luther was not the first to speak unkindly about the Jews. Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome who labelled the Jews as “the Christ killers.”

The Romans disliked them. They were slaughtered during the Crusades. In 1290 England expelled them, they were expelled from France in 1306 and 1394, Hungary in 1349 and 1360, Germany in 1348 and 1498, Austria in 1421, Lithuania in 1445 and 1495, murdered and expelled in Spain 1492, and Portugal in 1497.

Three years before Luther’s death, he listed some reasons why he hated the Jews and one of them was, they blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason was, along with most Europeans, he could not tolerate the Jewish practice of lending money at interest. He found this act detestable. Had he stopped here and forgave the Jews, his legacy after four centuries would have been different. But he did not end there, he went on to propose what he thought should be done about the situation.

This proposal provided many suitable texts for Hitler’s program of extermination. The most vicious, statements Luther ever penned were to be found in his tract entitled “Concerning the Jews and Their Lives.” His “honest” advice consisted of seven points:

1. First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire. And whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honour of God and Christianity so that God may see that we are Christians…
2. Secondly, their homes should be broken down and destroyed.
3. Third, they should be deprived of their prayer books and the Talmud in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blaspheming are taught.
4. Their rabbis must be forbidden under the threat of death to teach anymore….
5. Their passport and travelling privileges should be forbidden to Jews. Let them stay at home.
6. They ought to be stopped for usury. For this reason, as said before, everything they possess they stole and robbed us through their usury, for they have no other means of support.
7. Let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, and the spade, the distaff, and the spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses as is enjoined upon Adam’s children.

It is reported that two days after writing this tract, Martin Luther died!  The last consideration would be to quote this treatise which is more than 180 pages, in its right context. These words from Luther were not inspired at all. His writings prove that Martin Luther was a sinful human being just like every one of us.

In the larger scope of things, we may have preferred Luther to react differently by exercising a little more patience and longsuffering. On the other hand, we cannot overlook and only accuse a man whom God used to restore an important truth to the church at large. He cannot defend himself now. Maybe he repented afterwards for this sin of anti-Semitism before he died as this prayer depicts in one of his treatises:

With prayer and fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might at least save a few of them from glowing flames. Avenge ourselves we dare not. Vengeance a thousand times more than we can wish them already has them by the throat.

Indeed, ideas have consequences, some bad and others good, so the Nazis were glad that Luther’s earliest statements still existed in writing, so they published them for their evil schemes, without even considering their original context. The hundreds of thousands of sound doctrine and sensible views were ignored by these evil madmen as noted by Eric Metaxas:

Luther’s foulest condemnations of the Jews were never racial, but were stirred because of the Jews’ indifference to his earlier offers to convert them. The Nazis, on the other hand, wished adamantly to prevent Jews from converting. But when one considers how large the figure of Luther was still magnified over Germany, one can imagine how confusing all this was.

The constant repetition of Luther’s ugliest statements served the Nazi’s purposes and convinced most Germans that being a German and being a Christian were a racial inheritance, and that neither was compatible with being Jewish. The Nazis were anti-Christian, but they would pretend to be Christians as long as it served their purposes of getting theologically ignorant Germans on their side against the Jews.

Adolf Hitler exploited Luther’s writings to the maximum to deceive the church that was ignorant of the Holy Scriptures.Hal Lindsey, in his book The Road to Holocaust, points out that the error was often unintended:

The false form of the Church emerged through wrong theology initiated by men who were not evil. The early Church Fathers, like Origen and Augustine, had no idea of the far reaching implications of their errors, especially in the area of prophecy.

At first, the errors were gradual, but as time went on, the resulting consequences gained momentum. For instance, Origen (185-253 A.D.) is considered to be the father of the allegorical method of interpretation. His knowledge of philosophy and theology brought him fame throughout the Roman world, even by the Emperor.

Because of his influence, many of his students became leading theologians using his allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures. This further helped to establish this kind of teaching in the Church, thereby laying a foundation of anti-Semitism which gained momentum in successive generations.

So when Hitler came to power, he showed a proper appreciation of the continuity of Church fathers’ errors and in particular Luther’s history when he declared that the first large-scale Nazi pogrom in November 1938, was an operation performed in honour of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s birthday.

In his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler raved, saying,

Hence today, I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself of the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord. I do insist that sooner or later…..Christianity will be overcome and the German church established. Yes, the German church, without a pope, without the Bible, and Luther, if he could be with us, would give us his blessing.

Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918)

Let’s not forget by this time Julius Wellhausen a German rationalist, Old Testament scholar, intellectual and theologian had presented to the Christian community in Germany and Europe a new and better way of understanding the Bible.

Wellhausen concluded that those portions of Scripture that deal with sophisticated doctrine (the one God, the decalogues, the Tabernacle, and so on) may have been inserted at later dates than those passages that were simple narratives.

According to Wellhausen, then, some passages, including all of Deuteronomy, were written as a result of an evolutionary process and not by divine revelation. His doctrine regarded Israel’s history before the beginning of the monarchy of Israel as uncertain. Exodus, he thought, was completely historical; prior to that, all was a myth.

Wellhausen’s scholarship became an important contribution to liberalism as it sought to demythologize the Bible by taking God and spiritual things out of it. Through this, he opened the door for subsequent scholars to expand the base of liberalism and add to it their interpretations of biblical truth. Some found the Bible to be an endless round of allegories rather than necessary historical truth.

Although the Bible remained, because of Wellhausen it was dry pages of variable human theory, rather than the living, breathing revelation of the eternal God…. Again, the insistent message was that anybody by the name of Moses was irrelevant and that in these documents we have a representation of myths that teach us something about God, rather than anything that should be called divine revelation. Revelation disappeared, and reason took its place. As a consequence, the Christian religion became a complex set of rationalizations, rather than the revealed truth of God.

This defection from the orthodox (Jewish) view of Scripture was the evisceration of Christianity, leaving it a mere religion, without life, without hope, and authority. Christianity in Germany and Europe in general retained all its external forms but it became different from the inside—the substance, the core—yes, the life of Christianity was gone.

The idea that God had revealed Himself in His inspired, infallible Word slipped through the fingers of an unsuspecting church in those days. Quickly, the state churches embraced the rationalist point of view and lost the concept of divine revelation. Along with this, they lost faith in the Bible.

In a nutshell, we all change the world a little every day and ideas have consequences. So we ought to bring all our ideas under the authority of God’s Word. Despite his negative views on the Jews and his theological errors, Martin Luther, on that day, changed history in unimaginable ways. All true Christians can now agree on this:

By grace alone, by faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God.

We owe Martin Luther a debt of gratitude for having taken a courageous stand to restore a doctrine of grace to a church that had gone into apostasy.

Until next time…The Lord willing.

Image credit: Desiring God.com

God is fulfilling promises today that were made to the Jewish people thousands of years ago. These promises rest on a series of legal agreements, called covenants, made between God and the Jewish people, that center on the land of Israel.

The cornerstone covenant — the Abrahamic Covenant — grants the title deed to the land of Israel to the descendants of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This unconditional, irrevocable, and everlasting promise was literally sealed in blood (Genesis 12:1-7; 13:14-18; 17:7; 1 Chronicles 16:17-18; Psalm 105:8-11; Romans 9:4)!

God’s Land Covenant promised that Israel will one day become the prime nation of the world, that is, as long as the Jewish people remain obedient to God (Deuteronomy 28:1,13).

The Davidic Covenant promises an eternal King who will descend from the line of King David. One day this Messiah will rule over the entire world from Jerusalem (2 Samuel 7:10-16).

For hundreds of years, Christians have believed that because God said so, we should naturally support the nation of Israel. Seems pretty self-explanatory, wouldn’t you say?

Well, not so, says a particular group of Christians, Christians who meet at conferences with names like Christ at the Checkpoint. They question, “Should Christians really support Israel?”

Let’s debunk seven of their most popular myths for why Christians should not support the nation of Israel.

Myth #1: “The Jews killed Jesus!”

Those who accuse the Jews of killing Jesus seem to have purposefully forgotten that the Bible says, “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:27-28).

So, not only did both Jews and Gentiles participate in murdering Jesus, but in truth, we are all sinners, and therefore all of us are responsible for Jesus dying on the cross. But, reality check, Jesus Himself clearly stated that He alone laid down His life, and that no one took it from Him (John 10:15-18).

Myth #2: “The Jews have been disinherited because of their unbelief.”

The Jews may have been evicted from their land — twice — due to their rebellion against God. But, as Psalm 105 explains, God guaranteed in His Abrahamic Covenant that the land of Israel unconditionally and forever belongs to the children of Jacob. And, as the Apostle Paul argued in Romans 9-11, “Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself… Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!”

And so, no, God has neither disinherited the Jewish people nor revoked His land covenants.

Myth #3: “The Church has replaced Israel and now receives her inheritance.”

Not according to the Apostle Paul! He tells the story of an olive tree whose branches were pruned off due to unbelief, and wild vines grafted on (Romans 11). But, when the natural branches began believing again, they would be grafted back on the tree. Salvation may have come to the wild olive vines — the Church — but God still has salvation planned for the natural branches — a believing Israel who will call Jesus Savior.

Myth #4: “The Jews regathering back to the land of Israel can’t be from God because they haven’t repented and accepted Jesus as their Messiah.”

The Jews returning to Israel in unbelief is exactly what God foretold would happen. Isaiah prophesied the Jews would be regathered a second time from the nations of the world, and Ezekiel made it clear that the Jews would regather in unbelief in order for God Himself to give them a new heart towards Him (Isaiah 11:10-12; Ezekiel 36:22-28).

It’s no accident of history that a people dispossessed from their country for 1,900 years could ever have kept their ethnic identity and rebirthed their nation two millennia later. Such a thing has never happened! And this is the nation of the Bible we’re talking about. Therefore, the regathering of the Jews can only be a miracle from God.

Myth #5: “To support Israel is to support every action of the Israeli government.”

Nobody supports every action of any government, even their own. Supporting Israel is to support the redemptive work God is doing in bringing a remnant of their people to salvation in Christ and ultimately into the fulfilment of His covenants.

Myth #6: “The Jews stole the Palestinians’ land and live there illegally.”

First off, the Abrahamic Covenant grants the Jews the eternal deed to the land of Israel. Second, when the Jews began returning in the early 20th Century, there was no such thing as a Palestinian. The handful of Arabs living in that wasteland sold the land back to the Jews at exorbitant prices.

And third, Israel was created legally in response to a United Nations declaration passed in November 1947, which authorized the establishment of a Jewish state in the land the Romans had renamed Palestine. You can’t steal land that’s already legally yours!

Myth #7: “To support Israel is to hate the Palestinian people.”

Contrary to Arab propaganda, those who call themselves Palestinians enjoy more freedoms and rights in Israel than if they lived in any Muslim nation. For it’s not the Jews who hate and abuse the Palestinians, but their own terrorist leaders who steal billions of their foreign aid and deny refugees access back to their own home countries of Syria and Jordan.

Why, the Palestinians have been afforded several opportunities since 1948 to create another Palestinian state besides Jordan, but each time they have rejected those offers and instead responded with violence. Why? Because their ultimate goal is the annihilation of Israel. So, who exactly is hating who here?

With those myths busted, let’s look at some of the reasons why Christians should support Israel:

1. Democracy

The nation of Israel is the only Western-style democracy in a sea of Islamic tyranny. Supporting Israel is to support the only nation in the Middle East which offers religious freedom and human rights to women.

2. Defense

Israel protects the West and Christianity by standing as the first line of defense against violent, radical Islam.

3. Economics

Israel contributes to the world a mind-boggling amount of food, medicines, and cutting-edge technologies that raise the standard of living throughout the world.

4. Blessing

When it comes to supporting the nation of Israel, God promised in Genesis 12, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you…” Supporting Israel incurs God’s blessing.

5. Biblical

It rather goes without saying that it is biblically correct for Christians to support God. Since God loves the Jewish people and wants them to return to Him, then shouldn’t Christians want this as well? Loving Israel expresses our love for God.

6. Prophetic

And finally, whether you love or hate the nation of Israel, or even the Jewish people, regardless of what we mere mortals think — Bible prophecy will be fulfilled. God’s will will be done, and there’s just no stopping it. After all, who could ever stand against the Living God and expect to win (Psalm 76:7; Hebrews 10:31)?

So, in conclusion, it’s not “Should Christians really support Israel?” but rather — Christians must support Israel!

Copyright 2017, Christ in Prophecy– All rights reserved

The Holocaust has been described as the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and mass murder of European Jews and other groups carried out by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945. In fact the term Holocaust comes from a religious term referring to sacrifices totally burned on the altar and offered to God.

Many researchers and historians have spent lifetimes attempting to make sense of the Holocaust, and we believe the search for answers will continue to not only remember and honor the victims, but through trying to comprehend how a civilized and most educated culture could lose all sense of humanity.

The truth is Jews have suffered greatly throughout the ages and many others have also been victims of indescribable brutality. Winston Churchill described the uniqueness of the Holocaust and the Final Solution as probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world.

Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt points out two reasons why the German program of genocide remains in a class by itself as an example of evil:

It was the only time in recorded history that a state tried to destroy an entire people, regardless of an individual’s age, sex, location, profession, or belief. And it is the only instance in which the perpetrators conducted this genocide for no ostensible material, territorial, or political gain.

So what does the Jewish Holocaust teach us? In his book, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons we must Learn from Nazi Germany, Dr. Erwin Lutzer warns that if we think there is nothing to learn from it the Holocaust or Nazi Germany, we should think again:

When truth is rejected in the public sphere, the state will either turn to some semblance of natural law or more ominously to lies. Secular values will be imposed on society, and it will be done in the name of “freedom and tolerance.

It has been said that that this is an age of tolerance–tolerance for everything except Christianity. The so called social planners who are reshaping Western society according to purely humanistic values agree with Hitler that God and religion must be removed from all spheres of life. Religion most notably Christianity must be ousted from government, law, education, and the workplace.

At this moment we can see from what is going on in most of our nations that politicians have turned away from God as the source of salvation, life and liberty. We are calling evil good and good evil, lawlessness, immorality and evil is encouraged in society, there is injustice, and the law has been perverted. As families, churches and other Christian organizations, we should be prepared to defend truth, justice and righteousness when our turn comes to stand.

Secondly, it matters to learn from it because the Jewish Holocaust happened to people like us, not just because the Jews are perfect people. Not at all, we are all fallen human beings who need the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ but the Lord promised Abraham that through him all nations and families of the earth would be blessed.

The whole world has enjoyed many blessings through the Jewish people. But the greatest blessing is the gift of salvation through God’s Son Jesus Christ. There will be other great blessings that are yet to be fulfilled when Jesus Christ will be King over the all the earth and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7)

All nations of the earth will be blessed under the reign of Israel’s Jewish Messiah from Jerusalem. It is an undeniable fact that the destiny of every human being alive today and every nation on this earth is linked to the destiny of this tiny nation.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12: 3-4 KJV)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer prophetically warns us:

Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah of the Israelite-Jewish people, and for that reason the line of our forefathers goes back beyond the appearance of Jesus Christ to the people of Israel. Western history is, by God’s will, indissolubly linked with the people of Israel, not only genetically but also in a genuine uninterrupted encounter. The Jew keeps open the question of Christ. He is the sign of the free mercy-choice and of repudiating wrath of God Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. (Romans 11:22) That is why an expulsion of the Jews from the West must necessarily bring with it the expulsion of Christ. For Jesus Christ was a Jew.

Thirdly, one of the most important lessons history teaches is never to dismiss anything as impossible. Perhaps the most terrible sin of all is not that those who murdered the Jews said what they planned to do, but that the world didn’t listen. Maybe we’ve got to learn to hear even the things we don’t want to hear.

In his book, The Oak and The Calf, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who sustained long years of imprisonment and exile in Russia wrote that:

I may say that my whole life has trained me to expect the worst much more often than not, I am always readier, more willing to believe, the worst. In the camp I took to heart the Russian proverb: “Don’t let good luck fool you or bad luck frighten you.” I have learned to live by this rule and I hope never to depart from it.

May be we should learn to live by that rule as well, and respond to evil before it is too late. 

Finally, the fourth lesson is that many people are saying that that the Holocaust never happened and there appears to be a return of anti-Semitism in Europe and other nations. The Jewish people once again are quickly becoming the scapegoats of humanity. Why the hatred, yet there is overwhelming evidence of what really happened? In a speech delivered in 1985, Richard Von Weizsaecker the President of Germany made this thought provoking statement:

The Jewish nation remembers and will always remember. We seek reconciliation. Precisely for this reason we must understand that there can be no reconciliation without remembrance. The experience of million fold death is part of the very being of every Jew in the world, not only because people cannot forget such atrocities, but also because remembrance is part of the Jewish faith.

According to the Holy Scriptures particularly the Torah remembrance is part of the Jewish faith. Over and over again, as the nation of Israel prepared to cross the river Jordan and enter the Promised Land, Moses solemnly charged them to remember. They were to remember where they came from and how God delivered them:

And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15) There were to remember how they had come: And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. (Deut.8:2)

The Lord warned them that even in prosperity and success they were not to forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt. But this lesson wasn’t learned, and this attitude of independence, pride and ingratitude was repeated.

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: (Deut. 7:18) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. (Exodus 17:14)

The history of Israel proves that the sin of forgetfulness is a deadly sin, both to an individual and to nations. We should be deeply disturbed by how quickly many people have forgotten what happened. It’s even appalling and shocking that when you ask what people know about this dark period in human history, many are completely ignorant. George Orwell is quoted to have said that,

Whoever controls the image and information of the past determines what and how future generations will think; whoever controls the information and images of the present determines how those same people will view the past.

Yet history that’s being ignored is very useful because it is the only way we can learn from the past which is gone but our future which is still a mystery. That is one of the lessons history teaches. Remembering the past always helps us to understand the present. And to make the most of the present, we’ve got to try to use the knowledge learned from the past to create a better future.

That is why the Bible speaks in the language of remembering. God kept on reminding the Jews to remember what happened. What their ancestors taught them so that they could teach it to their children and eventually to the whole world.

The Bible tells us “The human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17: 9) Here again, Dr.Erwin Lutzer reminds us that:

Evil held in check by God often erupts when the conditions are right. When the restraints are gone, when people are desperate, and when power is up for grabs, the human heart is laid bare for all to see. We are naive if we think Nazi Germany cannot happen again. In fact the Bible predicts that it will…

We should not believe that the anti-Semites of yesterday are completely different human beings to the ones of today. Something to think about!

For more than three centuries, Christians in Britain had nourished a vision, based on the Bible, that God desired to make of the Jewish people a sovereign nation once again in their own land. The church leaders’ interest in the restoration had a background in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and were driven by the subsequent return of our Lord Jesus Christ, their interpretation of Scripture, a sense of justice, the desire to rectify the wrongs committed by Christians against God’s chosen people, and a feeling of sympathy for the Jews and their aspirations.

For example, when John Owen (1616 – 24 August 1683) who was a theologian, pastor and academic administrator at the University of Oxford, was preaching before the House of Commons in 1649, he spoke of “the bringing home of His ancient people to be one fold with the fullness of the Gentiles…in answer to millions of prayers put up at the throne of grace for this very glory, in all generations.

Revivalist and founder of the Methodist Church John Wesley stated in his notes on Romans:

So many prophecies refer to this grand event (of the restoration of Israel), that it is surprising any Christian can doubt of it. And these are greatly confirmed by the wonderful preservation of the Jews as a distinct people to this day. When it is accomplished, it will be so strong a demonstration, both of the Old and New Testament revelation, as will doubtless convince many thousands of Deists, in countries nominally Christian.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (21 May 1813 – 25 March 1843)

In 1839 the Church of Scotland sent a delegation, including R. M. M’Cheyne, to the Holy Land on a mission of enquiry. Upon his return, he preached a sermon in Dundee on “Our Duty to Israel,” in which he said:

The greatest glory and joy anyone can experience is to be like God, and to care first for the Jews is to be like God…. The whole Bible shows that God has a special affection for Israel…. There are some, of course, who will say that God has a special affection for Israel…others say that God has finished with Israel. But the whole Bible contradicts such as an idea: Did God reject His people? By no means! (Romans 11:1)…. They will give life to the dead world: The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like the dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger from mankind (Micah 5:7)

Bishop J. C. Ryle (10 May 1816 – 10 June 1900)

In May 1868 Bishop J. C. Ryle of the Church of England, and one of the prominent Bible teachers of the last 200 years, preached a sermon at Rectory Church, Mary-le-Bone, entitled “Scattered Israel to be Re-gathered,” using Jeremiah 31:10 as his text. In it he said,

However great the difficulties surrounding many parts of unfulfilled prophecy, two points appear to my own mind to stand out as plainly as if written by a sunbeam. One of these points is the second personal advent of our Lord Jesus Christ before the Millennium. The other of these points is the future literal gathering of the Jewish nation, and their restoration to their own land.

He goes on to say,

Out of the sixteen prophets of the Old Testament, there are at least ten in which the gathering and restoration of the Jews in the latter days are expressly mentioned. I believe there is one common remark that applies to them all. They all point to a time which is yet in the future. They all predict the final gathering of the Jewish nation from the four quarters of the globe, and their restoration to their own land…. I ask you, then, to settle it firmly in your mind, that when God says a thing shall be done, we ought to believe it.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Considered to be England’s most influential non-conformist preacher, Charles Spurgeon voiced the question of the restoration of Israel as well. He linked the restoration of the nation of Israel with their acceptance of Christ as their Messiah. “It is certain that the Jews, as a people, will yet own Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David as their King,” he said, “and that they will return to their own land, and they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the old cities, the desolations of many generations.” Spurgeon reminded his listeners:

If the dispersion was a mark of God’s judgment, according to the prophets, then Israel’s return to the land is the mark of God’s grace. In fact, so astounding will be the future return of Israel that it will make the exodus from Egypt seem small in comparison.

The London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst Jews, which later came to be known as The Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People, was also founded in 1809. The society began in the early nineteenth century when leading evangelicals, including members of the influential Clapham Sect, such as William Wilberforce and Charles Simeon, decided that there was an unmet need to promote Christianity among the Jews. The original vision of the society was to:

• Declare the Messiahship of Jesus to the Jew first and also to the non-Jew;
• Endeavor to teach the church its Jewish roots.
• Encourage the physical restoration of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel—the Land of Israel;and
• Encourage the Hebrew Christian/Messianic Jewish movement….

The Political Expression

History tells us that the nation of Britain made a unique contribution to the establishment of the state of Israel but unfortunately the political will had also other sinister motives.

In 1917, it was the Balfour Declaration made on the behalf of the British government that set in motion the political processes that was issued, thirty-one years later, in the establishment of the state of Israel.

What is significant about this correspondence is that Lord Balfour was a Freemason but God used him to bring about His purposes. Jewish Bible prophecy teacher Dough Camp writes:

According to researcher Dr. Stanley Monteith, Balfour was a high ranking Mason (we note, however, that God often allows and uses the wicked to bring about His own purposes i.e. He used the Assyrians to punish the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. see also 2 Kings 21:14). In fact, we will see that the Masons were centrally responsible for Israel’s reestablishment.

Doug quotes Israeli author and reporter Barry Chamish who states the Masonic administration over the establishment of Israel in no uncertain terms:

Without British Freemasonry there would be no modern state of Israel. In the 1860s, the British-Israelite movement was initiated from within Freemasonry. Its goal was to establish a Jewish-Masonic state in the Turkish province of Palestine. Of course, that would mean dealing with the Turks at some point down the line, but first the country would have to be repopulated with Jews. And the idea wasn’t to bring in more of the same religious Jews who already were the majority in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but the kind of Jews who would eventually accept the Masonic view of history.

Initially, British Jewish Masonic families like the Rothschilds and Montefiores provided the capital to build the infrastructure for the anticipated wave of immigration. However, luring the Jews to Israel was proving difficult. They, simply, liked European life too much to abandon it. So Europe was to be turned into a nightmare for the Jews. This led to the rise of pogroms and Zionism…..Then things began moving quickly. British Masons like Arthur Balfour and Herbert Samuel led the campaign for official British recognition of a Jewish homeland during World War One. At the same time, a million British troops, badly needed in the trenches of Europe, were sent marching to Palestine to oust the Ottomans.

When the war ended, the campaign for a Jewish state went into full speed at Versailles. In 1919, The Royal Institute of International Affairs was founded in London and two years later, the Council on Foreign Relations began its nefarious activities in New York. Their agendas called for a world governmental takeover and a global religion based in Jerusalem….The above evidence strongly affirms that the Masons were behind the establishment of the modern state of Israel. Given their intense interest in the Temple and their desire to rebuild it, such testimony becomes strong circumstantial evidence that the Masons were behind the re-establishment of Israel because they desire to rebuild the temple which is central to their entire dogma. We can only guess they desire the temple rebuilt because their dark lord, Lucifer desires to have his savior to the world, the Antichrist, go in and declare himself to be god.

In the 1830s, among those that favored the restoration of Israel and who were active to that end were Winston Churchill, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Palmerston, and Edward Bickersteth. Shaftesbury drew up a state letter urging Turkey to hand over Palestine to the Jews for “their indestructible Messianic hope. He wrote,

The ancient city of the people of God is about to resume a place among the nations, and England is the first of all the Gentile kingdoms that ceases to tread her down.

And in 1840 the British ambassador to Turkey strongly recommended the Turkish government to use every encouragement to urge the Jews to return to Palestine. Again in the 1840s Charles Henry Churchill, ancestor of Sir Winston, spoke and wrote of a “pledge of England’s friendship” and bonding union with the Jewish nation.

May the Jewish nation regain its rank and position among the nations of the world….At an important public meeting he stated that “God has put into my heart the desire to serve His ancient people.

The End of the Empire

In May 1947 the United Nations had created a committee to study the Palestinian question. The Arabs refused to participate and the committee recommended the partition of the remaining 23 percent of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as a free international city. However, this committee forgot or ignored the fact that Britain had already divided Palestine in 1922 and created an Arab state called Transjordan. Britain supported only the international status of Jerusalem in this resolution.

It was submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which passed the resolution thirty-three to thirteen and gave the necessary two-thirds majority. The British abstained because of her recommendation in the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The British, who had been so supportive to the Jewish homeland, were now opposed to the formation of a Jewish homeland.

In fact a document known as the The Churchill White Paper divided Palestine along the Jordan River, creating an Arab homeland in Palestine known as Transjordan (later Jordan). This document overturned the Balfour Declaration and specified four stipulations that proved disastrous to the Jewish people:

1. It called for an independent Palestinian state established within ten years, governed by both Jews and Arabs.
2. The Jewish immigration to Palestine under the British mandate was to be limited to 75,000 over the next five years, after that it would depend on Arab consent.
3. Jews would only buy land in areas where they were already the majority population.
4. Jewish immigration would be limited to the economic capacity of the country.

In 1945 Churchill was forced out of office by the new labor government led by Clement Atlee. Again, when the war ended, Palestine remained closed to the survivors of the concentration camps, who had now become homeless. Their homeland was allowed to take only a few thousand immigrants each year. Most of them were returned to the very concentration camps from which they had been freed.

Many writers have concluded that the British Empire disappeared within a comparatively short period of time after its refusal to vote for Israel’s restoration at the UN in November, 1947. The God of Israel is the God with whom every nation will have to deal, and to whom every nation will have to give an account.

When the Holy Spirit spoke through Paul at Athens on Mars Hill, he told them that,

God made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes)…. (Acts 17:26)

So God draws the map and allots every nation its time and space. Historians and other Bible teachers believe it was God who brought the British Empire to an end. For instance, British Bible teacher and author David Pawson says,

When he was a boy the school atlas was largely red. It was possible to travel right round the world and never leave British soil. What happened to this great empire? The answer is that Britain washed its hands of God’s people, Israel. So God said, “If Britain can’t look after Israel she can’t look after anybody; and within five years the empire went.

But another question worth considering is: How could they have voted for Israel’s restoration yet they wanted only the kind of Jews who would eventually accept their Masonic view of history? Something to think about!

Reclaiming the Land

Under the United Nations Partition Plan, the Jews were denied sovereignty over Jerusalem, their ancient capital, but they gracefully accepted the Partition Plan that had been recommended. The first president of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, appealed to the UN to support the partition, saying:

We realize that we cannot have the whole of Palestine. God may have promised Palestine to the Jews; but it is up to the Almighty to keep His promise in His own time. Our business is to do what we can in a very imperfect way.

The first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion also reiterated that God would overrule in reclaiming the whole Promised Land by saying:

I know that God promised all of Palestine to the children of Israel. I do not know what borders He set. I believe they are wider than the ones proposed. If God will keep His promise in His own time, our business as poor humans who live in a difficult age is to save as much as we can of the remnants of Israel.

One teacher of prophecy noted that it matters very little as to how much land Israel relinquishes for peace, as ultimately they will take over all the land from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq.

The Land was Barren and Desolate

After the temple was destroyed and the Jewish people scattered throughout the nations, the Bible says, the Land was destined to become barren and desolate. This is exactly what happened when the children of Israel went into exile. The prophet Ezekiel and others proclaimed that God will re-gather the Israelites from the ends of the earth and reestablish them in their own land. (See Ezekiel 36:22-28; Isaiah 11:10-12)

Over a period of nearly two thousand years, various Gentile nations made attempts to settle on the land, but none was successful. Pilgrims and travelers who passed through the region noted that the country was nearly un-inhabitable. During the nineteenth century, the American author Mark Twain visited the Holy Land and he vividly described what he saw:

Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes….desolate country whose soil is rich enough but given over wholly to weeds….we never saw a human being on the whole route…There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere…Nazareth is forlorn…. Jericho the accursed lies a smouldering ruin…Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliation, have nothing to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Savior’s presence.

Of the city of Jerusalem he wrote:

Jerusalem is mournful, and dreary and lifeless. I would not desire to live here…

Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne also visited the Holy Land in June 1839, with other pilgrims including his biographer Andrew Bonar. Rev. M’Cheyne had a very clear view of the destiny of the Jews in the purposes of the God of Israel. He once wrote: “We should be like God in His peculiar affections; and the whole Bible shows that God has ever had, and still has, a peculiar love to the Jews.” As they walked through the Judean hills up to Jerusalem, he wrote down in his journal:

The terracing of all the hills is the most remarkable feature of Judean scenery. Every foot of the rockiest mountains may in this way be covered with vines. We thought of Isaiah wandering here, and David ad Solomon. Still all was wilderness. The hand of man had been actively employed upon every mountain, but where were these laborers now? Judah is gone into captivity before the enemy. There are few men left in the land; not a vine is there…. Jerusalem is indeed like heaps. The quantities of rubbish would amaze you, —in one place higher than the walls. Judah’s cities are all waste, except Bethlehem.

In 1918, Sherif Hussein who was the Arab leader with whom the British government had been dealing with also made a thought provoking statement regarding how the land was desolate:

The resources of the country are still virgin soil and will be developed by the Jewish immigrants. One of the amazing things until recent times was the Palestinian used to live his country, wandering over the high seas in every direction. His native soil could not retain its hold on him.

God’s Covenant with Abraham

The rest of the land which was taken over by Israel in 1948 was an ownerless desert and very desolate. When the Jewish people came back in large numbers in that same year, when Israel became a Nation again, the land started to blossom as God said it would. The land would not produce for anyone except the Jewish people. Why? Because the covenant promise was through Isaac not Ishmael.

Abraham loved Ishmael and wanted him to have the inheritance; and God declared that “I have blessed him….. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. (Genesis 17:20) God blessed the Arab people through Ishmael by giving them prosperity, vast areas of land and oil… But the promise and a certain area of land known as the Promised Land was given through Isaac and Jacob…..But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year (Genesis 17:21).

As Christians we are to ask the Holy Spirit for a burden to pray and intercede for the Arabs. They are also the sons of Abraham. It is the Holy Spirit that will break the barrier between the Jews and Arabs that they may be a home and a blessing for both of them. The Lord makes it clear that the gospel is for everyone.

There is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all people, both the Jews and the Arabs. The most remarkable prophecy concerning the future salvation of Arab remnants is found in the Book of Isaiah where the Lord says that when the Lord strikes Egypt and Assyria, they will turn to Him and He will have compassion on them and “heal them” (See Isaiah 19:16-25).

In Jesus Christ those who have been enemies will unite in love and become brothers and sisters. The Lord will break every barrier and Egypt, Assyria and Israel will leave together in peace, worshipping the same living God! What an amazing picture.

In a nutshell, God cannot break His covenant. If He did, He would destroy Himself. God’s covenants are eternal, unbreakable. Those who teach that God broke His covenant with the Jewish people are not teaching the whole counsel of God. This is what the Lord says concerning His covenant with Israel:

Thus says the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord (Jeremiah 31:37 AMP).

Now who can measure the heavens or explore the foundations of the earth? Of course no one. Therefore God says that Israel is eternally His people.

God does not show Favoritism

In Romans 2:11 Paul also says “For there is no partiality with God.” He chose the Jews, not to be a repository of His blessings, but to be a vehicle through whom He would bless all the nations of the world, including the Palestinians and all the Arabs. But the main condition to receive God’s blessing–for both Jew and Arab, as well as all people—is to accept God’s gift of love in Jesus Christ by believing, repenting and obeying Him as Messiah.

When we consider God’s grace towards the Arab people, we are again reminded of what Paul wrote when he considered God’s grace towards His brethren the Jews:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)! (Romans 11:33 AMP)

The message of God’s amazing grace towards the Jews and Arabs is available to all of us. There is no sin that is so dark that God’s grace is not stronger still and nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. He only requires that:

…..All people everywhere to repent (to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins). Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead. His name Jesus Christ. In Hebrew Yeshua Hamashia which means salvation (see Acts 17:30 AMP).

Israel is the key nation because all end time prophecy revolves around the Jewish people and prophecy is not given to us in Scripture just so we can know beforehand what will happen in the future. It is given so we will humble our hearts in repentance and seek God, to find out how God would have us participate in that prophecy, and to pray earnestly for its fulfillment.

Prophecy is given not only so we can understand our times, but so we can be part of God’s plan. Until that day of redemption comes we must not retreat to complacency and compromise. We must obey the Word of God and also bless His people. His Word calls us to watch and pray:

I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night; you who are His servants and by your prayers put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises, keep not silence, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7 AMP).

Further Resources:

Franz Kobler, The Vision was There (now-out-of-print book published in 1956 written by a non-Christian, Jewish author.

The Forsaken Promise 2 DVD Disk Set from Hatikvah Films

Kelvin Crombie, For the Love of Zion–Christian Witness and Restoration of Israel

Hugh Kitson, Jerusalem The Covenant City

The question is: Who are the real Jews? After all the internet is replete with articles and information that Jews are the ones causing the entire world’s problems including creating this New World communist order, printing money, causing depressions etc. The historical involvement of many Jews in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the reality of many Jews in the political landscape in America and Western Europe, has led many to conclude that Jews want to take over the world.

Some hold the view that the modern-day “Jews” did not physically descend from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they instead descended from the Khazars, which are a Turkish, non-Semitic race that ruled the Khazar Empire located between the Caspian and Black Seas (now southern Russia). They believe they converted to Judaism during the early centuries.

Others believe that occupants of modern-day Israel are Jews who are mainly the descendants of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, as these were the main tribes living in Israel at the time of Christ and were then dispersed after the revolt against the Roman Empire in AD 70.

Another common view is what some have termed “British Israelism,” which is the belief that many of the world’s English-speaking peoples, like the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, are direct descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Furthermore, since God looks kindly upon the descendants of Israel, those who claim this relationship often believe God favours them.

Those who hold this view believe that this is the main reason why they’ve come to possess the richest portions of earthly wealth. Most of these maintain that when the Assyrians conquered Samaria, Israel’s capital in 721 BC, the northern tribes of Israel were captured and enslaved by the Assyrians.

So these northern tribes never returned from their captivity and they contend that these “ten lost tribes” of Israel made their way to Northern Europe, the British Islands, and some migrated as far as North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and around the world.

These theological doctrines have been attributed to Mr. Herbert M. Armstrong (1892–1986), who is the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Though his interpretation is very complicated and tedious, he concludes that England descended from Ephraim and the United States from Manasseh. Some prophecy teachers reject his interpretation and have claimed that he takes passage after passage out of context. In his book The Late United States, author and Bible prophecy teacher, Mark Hitchcock rightly notes:

The northern tribes have been not been lost. Many of them have been dispersed, but not lost. God knows where every man, woman, and child of them is located.Those who doubt that God will literally appoint 144,000 Jewish males during the end times are lacking a biblical view of God (see Revelation 7:4–7). Even though tribal identities may be forgotten by mankind, God has never lost track of them—who or where they are. And in our time we are witnessing the initial stages of the final re-gathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland…. These ten tribes are not, nor have they ever been lost. And they are not in any way related to the United States. The United States is not the ten lost tribes of Israel, nor the tribe of Manasseh. Israel is still Israel and will fulfill its central role in the events of the end times, just as the Bible predicts.

The Sin of Anti-Semitism

We can understand that Jewish hatred and anti-Semitism have more to do with God and His purposes rather than the Jewish people themselves. This does not mean that the Jews are better or worse than anyone else. It is because God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring redemption to the world, the Messiah Himself being a Jew. So in that light, it will be a bad day for all the anti-Semites when they realize that the all-powerful King coming in a flaming fire is a glorified Jew.

As Christians, we should be careful not to be anti-Semitic when it comes to dealing with the Jews. We have to remember that some Jews and their leaders are just as secular as American humanists. Those who think that it’s the Jewish or Zionist conspiracy that is creating the New World Order and causing all the world’s financial problems should understand this conspiracy involves participants of all races, tribes, and tongues.

The Bible describes a time when Israel will be isolated from the rest of the world and attacked by kings of the north, east, south, and west. Does this sound like a nation that will secretly take over the world? Just like some of the framers who wanted to replace Christianity with a religion of human reason, even today there many other humanist Jews and Gentiles who hate anything that has to do with Yeshua and Christians.

This is essentially a struggle between good and evil. It is not a Jewish problem as people are portraying it—it is anti-Semitism, and on a deeper level occultic, as it was in Nazi Germany. There is overwhelming evidence in the Word of God to indicate that anyone who curses the true descendants of Abraham, whether individually or as a nation, will be cursed (see Genesis 12:3). The laboratory is Europe. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn believed:

The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The first of these was World War I and II and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it. It was a war (the memory of which seems to be fading) when Europe, bursting with health and abundance, fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more, and perhaps forever. The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them.

There is no doubt that one of the main reasons for the present lukewarm and powerless condition of the Church in Europe is due to anti-Semitism even in the pulpits. The record on religious freedom in Europe is much worse than across the Atlantic.

It’s been noted that secular humanists exercise more control in positions of leadership in Europe than they do in the United States. Four per cent of the British people attend church services. Why is this? Some believe it is because Bible-believing Christians in America understand the spiritual implications of blessing Israel; therefore, they’ve been blessed in many spiritual ways.

Despite its many mistakes, America has experienced more religious freedom and prosperity than any other nation partly because of the churches and individual Christians’s desire to support the Jewish nation. They recognize that the Jews are God’s chosen people, not because they deserve it, but because He chose them like He chose the church. As believers in Yeshua, we are to bless Israel because of the following reasons:

• God says He will bless those who bless them (12:3; Isaiah 60:12).
• We owe them a debt for the blessings we have received through them (Romans 9:4-5; 15:27)
• God’s gift and call on Israel has not been revoked (Romans 11:28).
• God has promised to bring them back to their land. The re-gathering of Israel is prophesized in Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah and even by Jesus Himself in Luke 21:24.
• The times of the Gentiles are almost fulfilled (Luke 21:28).
• We are to comfort God’s chosen people (Isaiah 40:1-2; 49:22-23).
• Teaching against anti-Semitism where is most deeply entrenched.

Are believers supposed to support everything the Jewish nation does? Absolutely not! We should understand that the notion of protecting Israel from her adversaries has been exploited by the military-industrial complex and made life even more dangerous for Israel.

We are also advised not to participate or get involved in the rebuilding of the temple Why? We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and some believe the anti-Christ will defile this temple.

Israel still has a geographical promise which they will have to claim in due time. Whereas, the Church has been given no such promise. The Church is a chosen nation and we hold no political identity.

Our task is to be a light to the world and to proclaim that Jesus alone saves us from eternal death…. there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved, (Acts 4:12) and that He is coming again. Maranatha… Come, Lord Jesus…

In the 1760s the government of Poland persecuted and targeted the Jews. Desiring freedom, most of them fled the country and traveled throughout Europe. One of those Jews was a man by the names of Haym Salomon (1740–1785), who believed America to be a country where Jewish people could safely live. It has been noted by different historians that a number of Jews played significant roles in the founding of the American nation, men like Francis Salvador, a Jew who was the first patriot to be killed in Georgia.

In Charleston, South Carolina, almost every adult Jewish male fought on the side of freedom. Many historians believe that had it not been for the faithful efforts of Haym Salomon and other Jews, things would have turned out differently.

Not only did Salomon use personal finances to provide interest free loans to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and numerous other public figures, he also personally paid the salaries of some government officials and army officers. He was twice arrested by the British, who suspected him of being a spy, and was thrown into a disease-infested prison where he became ill, probably with the tuberculosis that later claimed his life.

Virtually all of the delegates of the Constitutional Convention knew Haym Salomon. Six of the delegates had long been dependent on his generosity for their own livelihoods or for the maintenance of the particular government function for which they were responsible. James Madison, the future president, sought out Salomon. Madison’s papers record his indebtedness to the Jewish financier, who refused both a note and interest.

Though Article 6 dispelled the cloud of bigotry and gave freedom of each of the American people to express their individual faith according to the dictates of their own hearts, we should not forget that it was the same that opened the door for Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians to serve in official governmental capacities. It became the initial means by which America was transformed from a monotheistic Christian nation to a polytheistic one. Article 6 and the First Amendment’s impact upon equal rights for American Jews is summed up by Michael Alexander:

Although the Constitution of the United States does not specifically mention Jews, its religious liberty provisions in essence granted Jews the honor of citizenship. The United States was thus the first non-Jewish country, ancient or modern, that included Jews as political equals. The Constitution of the United States prohibited a religious test for government (Article VI), and the First Amendment prohibited Congress from establishing any religion, thus permuting Jews to participate as equal citizens on the federal level. By 1820, most state constitutions eliminated religious qualifications that had kept Jews from participating in public affairs and government office.

Author Ted Weiland, called it a “compromise is a journey halfway down the road to surrender…. Though many Christians today laud the constitutional idea of freedom of religion, which allows gods other than God to be worshipped in America. Thanks to Article 6 and so-called Christians then and now, the ambassadors of those other gods are now government leaders who are helping to establish their god’s morality as the laws of the nation.”

The ban on the Religious Test Clause was not because the federal test was deemed unnecessary in light of the states’ constitutions, but instead to pave the way for deists, atheists, and even anti-Christians to hold public office. It was not the intent of the constitutional framers to leave the decision of religion solely to the states.

While it is true that the prime motivation for the two religious clauses found in the Constitution appears to have been liberty of conscience in religious matters, the framers were not opposed to non-Christian or even antichrist religions. The framers had liberty for all religions in mind when they forbade Christian test oaths, as evidenced in their writings.

This compromise led to a more secular state that replaced piety as the spirit of science fostered critical thinking and rationalism. What followed was the unequal yoking with other religious beliefs and following Jesus Christ, and Christian test oaths were considered religious extremism and fundamentalism. God’s eternal principles were slowly replaced by an atmosphere of open-mindedness and tolerance, and it became more acceptable for faith to assume different forms.

The Enlightenment preached the sacredness of every individual—a principle that would become a cornerstone of the American democratic ideal that all men are created equal, and that their Creator endows them with certain unalienable rights.

Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with the colonists during the American Revolution, wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which was adopted by the French National Assembly on August 16, 1789—a document that served as the key philosophic foundation of the French Revolution, drawing on the American Declaration of Independence. It declared, “All men are born, and remain, free and equal in rights.” This theory of natural rights is related to the theory of natural law.

During the Age of Enlightenment, natural law theory challenged the divine right of kings. The term “natural rights” is a humanistic concept and is not compatible with the Bible. Deuteronomy 30:19–20 specifies that we don’t have a human or civil right to do anything we want. Rather, we are given the choice between life and death, blessing and cursing.

If any of us have embraced new age thinking or Enlightenment views, then we might be having a very different idea of Who or what God might be to us. We possibly believe in polytheism—that there is a multiplicity of gods. God has not only revealed Who is He is in the Scriptures, but He clearly tells us that there is no salvation outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus states,

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to Father except through Me” (John 14:6). And Isaiah declares: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6) I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. (Isaiah 43:11)  

The history of the Jews in America began before the United States was an independent country. It actually began in 1654 with the arrival of twenty-three refugees to New Amsterdam (later to be known as New York), who were fleeing from the Portuguese who had conquered Recife, Brazil. By the time the colonies fought the War of Independence in 1776, there were about 2,000 Jews living in America at the time. Though they were few in number, they played a major role in ratifying the Constitution of the United States of America.

The majority of the earliest settlers were Puritans. Beginning with the Mayflower, 16,000 Puritans migrated to the Massachusetts Bay colony over the next twenty years, and many more settled in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Like their cousins back in England, these American Puritans strongly identified with both the historical traditions and customs of the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament. They viewed their emigration from England as a virtual reenactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

To them, England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the Land of Israel, and the Native Americans were the ancient Canaanites. They viewed themselves as the new Israelites, entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land. Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621, a year after the Mayflower first landed. It was initially conceived as a day parallel to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, and it was to be a day of fasting, introspection, and prayer.

Previously, during the Puritan Revolution in England, the Puritan identification with the Bible was so strong that some Puritan extremists sought to replace the English common law with biblical laws of the Old Testament but were prevented from doing so.

In America, however, there was far more freedom to experiment with the use of biblical law in the legal codes of the colonies, and this was exactly what these early colonists set out to do. The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England was determined by Scripture alone. The New Haven legislators adopted a legal code—the Code of 1655—which contained some seventy-nine statutes, half of which contained biblical references, virtually all of them taken from the Hebrew Bible.

Jewish Influence on American Education

The Hebrew Bible played a central role in the educational system of America. In addition to Harvard, many other colleges and universities were established under the auspices of various Protestant sects: Yale, William and Mary, Rutgers, Princeton, Brown, King’s College (later to be known as Colombia), John Hopkins, Dartmouth, etc.

The Bible played a central role in the curriculum of all these institutions of higher learning, with both Hebrew and Bible studies offered as required courses. So popular was the Hebrew Language in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that several students at Yale delivered their commencement orations in Hebrew.

Bible study and Hebrew were course requirements in virtually all these colleges, and students had the option of delivering commencement speeches in Hebrew, Latin, or Greek. Many of these colleges even adopted some Hebrew word or phrase as part of their official emblem or seal. When Harvard was founded, the Hebrew language was taught along with Latin and Greek. Also, a significant number of the constitutional framers were products of these American universities.

Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were not only well acquainted with the contents of both the Old and New Testaments, but also had some working knowledge of the Hebrew language. Most remarkable of all, a motion was made in the Continental Congress that Hebrew become the official language of the land. But needless to say, the motion was lost.

There were probably fewer than 3,000 Jews in the United States when George Washington became president. During the colonial period, Jewish settlers in America had first encountered much of the same kind of discrimination and legal restrictions that they had been accustomed to in Europe. Nevertheless, by the time of the American Revolution, they had gradually won civil, political, and religious rights that far exceeded anything that their fellow religionists in Europe enjoyed.

By the end of the Revolution, Jews had been chosen not only to local posts in some cities, but had also been selected for more responsible positions in many parts of the country. There was no inclination to bar these people from public office. The Jews of Philadelphia led by Jonas Phillips in 1783–1784 protested the requirement that members of the general assembly take an oath affirming belief in the New Testament.

A Revision to the Constitution

This led to the revision of the Constitution of Pennsylvania a few years later, explicitly barring the disqualification on account of religious sentiments of any person who acknowledges the Being of a God and future state of rewards and punishments. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia affirms that this petition proved later on to be instrumental in the revision of the Pennsylvania State Constitution in such a manner as to abolish the religious test oath.

On September 7, 1787, Jonas Phillips, a founder of Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel Synagogue, also petitioned the framers at the federal Constitutional Convention:

It is well known among all citizens of the 13 United States that the Jews have been true and faithful Whigs, and during the late contest with England they have been foremost in aiding and assisting the States with their lives and fortunes. They have supported the cause and bravely fought and bled for liberty which they cannot enjoy. Therefore if the honorable convention shall in their wisdom think fit and alter the said oath as found in the altered Pennsylvania Constitution and leave out the words to viz: and I do acknowledge the Scripture of the New Testament to be given by divine inspiration, the Israelites (Jews) will think themselves happy to live under a government where all religious societies are on an equal footing. Your most devoted obedient Servant, Jonas Phillips Philadelphia, 24th Ellul, 5547, or September 1787.

Phillips’s petition undoubtedly bore weight with the framers, as did the personal relationships many of the framers shared with the Jews. Under the heading, “Jewish Influence on the Framing of the Constitution,” The Jewish People’s Almanac brags about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison’s personal relationship with the Jews. Had the Constitutional Convention been open to the public, more than one eminent Jew would have had no difficulty in mingling on terms of equality with many of the best-known delegates.

It is important to note here that Benjamin Franklin, the oldest member of the Constitutional Convention, numbered many Philadelphia Jews among his friends. He was sufficiently friendly with them to be one of the contributors to the building fund for Philadelphia’s first synagogue, Mikveh Israel. Not only that, but Samuel Keimer, an English printer who was one Franklin’s first employers, was a Jew. To George Washington who presided over the sessions, Jews were of course no strangers.

During the Revolution he had on his personal staff Manuel Mordecai Noah of South Carolina, David Salisbury Franks of Philadelphia, and Major Benjamin Nones, a French volunteer. In his General Orders for April 18, 1783, announcing the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, George Washington congratulated his soldiers “of whatever condition they may be,” for, among other things, having “assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religion.

The “bosom of America,” he declared a few months later, was “open to receive…the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.

It is recorded that the following year, in 1784, when asking his aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman to secure a carpenter and a bricklayer for his Mount Vernon estate, he said:

If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mohometans, Jews, or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists. I had always hoped that this land might be become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind; to whatever nation they might belong.

Washington emphasized that religious freedom is something more than mere toleration of opposing and differing religions. The most famous of the exchanges that American Jews had with President Washington was on August 17, 1790, by the Newport congregation who welcomed Washington to the city and then declared:

Deprived as we have hitherto been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now…behold a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance but generously affording to all liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship-deeming everyone, of whatever nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental machine…. For all the blessings of civil and religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of days.

In his reply, George Washington told the Newport Jews:

They have a right to applaud themselves for having given to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support…. May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

Washington’s statement has been called “immortal” and “memorable,” naturally delighting the Newport congregation and the Jewish congregations elsewhere in the United States. Historian Rabbi Morris Aaron Gutstein, best known for his work on the history of the Jewish community of colonial Newport, called it one of the “most outstanding expressions on religious liberty and equality in America” and insisted that it “will be quoted by every generation in which religious liberty is cherished.

Recommended Reading:

Ted Weiland, Bible Law Versus The United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective (Scottsbluff, NE: Mission to Israel Ministries, 2012)

Rabbi Ken Spiro, World Perfect: The Jewish Impact on Civilization (Deerfield Beach, Florida: Simcha Press, 2002)

Jonathan D. Sarna, Benny Kraut, Samuel K. Joseph, eds., Jews and the Founding of the Republic (New York: Markus Weiner Publishing, 1985)

Salomon, Haym, The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 10 Vols. (New York: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., 1941)

John F. Boller, George Washington and Religion (Dallas: SMU Press, 1963).

Os Guinness, Character Counts: Leadership Qualities in Washington, Wilberforce, Lincoln and Solzhenitsyn (Michigan: Baker Books, 1999)

Image description:  Statue of Robert Morris, left, George Washington, center, and Jewish financier Haym Solomon, right, in Chicago