Satan’s Long War Against the Jews

Nathan Jones Presentation

Nathan Jones: In the New Testament era, you would think that Christ’s called for loving God and one’s neighbors as oneself would’ve made the newly formed Church immune to engaging in racial strife, but alas, the most tragic aspect of Satan’s conspiracy against the Jews is that early it infected the Church with a virulent form of antisemitism.

You see, for the past 2000 years, the Church at large, both Catholic and Protestant, has maintained that due to the fact that the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and they crucified Him, that God has poured out His wrath on them in 70 AD, destroying their nation and their temple and exiling them yet again, this time to the four corners of the earth.

In the process, the Church has asserted that God has washed His hands of the Jewish people, leaving them with no purpose whatsoever as a nation. In short, the churches believe that because of the Jews continuing disobedience and the rejection of Jesus, that God has replaced Israel with the Church. He transferred His blessings of promise from Israel to the Church and He left all the curses on the Jewish people.

This is called supersessionism, or more commonly today, replacement theology. And those who still believe in it, and folks, that’s a majority of professing Christians, consider modern day Israel to be just an accident of history. It has no spiritual significance whatsoever. A nation that came back from the dead after 1900 years supposedly has no particular reason to exist, no purpose in God’s plan. Again, to them, the regathering of the Jewish people from all the nations of world after 1900 years of exile is simply an accident of history and has zero spiritual meaning.

Well, let’s look at the roots of replacement theology. The roots of replacement theology and its fruit, which is called antisemitism, go, folks, believe it or not, back all the way to the beginning of Christianity. And I’m sure most people are well aware that the Church began what? As a Jewish institution. It was founded in Judea by Jews who were followers of a Jewish Messiah and all its founding documents were written by Jews, right.

The Jewish nature of the early churches easily attested by this symbol. It is the oldest Christian symbol that’s ever been found. It’s carved into artifacts found in Jerusalem that date back to the first century. And as you can see here, it shows a fish, which is the symbol of the Church emerging out of its Jewish roots represented by the menorah and the Star of David. The fish became a symbol for Christianity. And the word in fish is Greek is ichthus, which is an acronym for Jesus Christ, God’s Son and Savior.

Well, let’s look at the evolution of replacement theology and let’s leave the New Testament and go to the Early Church Fathers. Now, as the Church began to spread beyond Judea and embraced more and more Gentiles, it quickly lost touch with its Jewish roots. And this process was accelerated by the destruction of the mother church in Jerusalem during the second Jewish revolt against the Romans, which ended in 136 AD.

Another key to Gentilizing the Church was the development of what’s called allegorical hermeneutics. There’s your theological term today. It means spiritualizing the Scriptures. And it enabled the Church to appropriate Israel’s promises and give it to themselves.

Thus, Tertullian writing in the third century was able to argue that the promise of Genesis 25, that “the older will serve the younger,” speaking, of course, Esau and Jacob, was really a prophecy that Israel would become subservient to the Church. As a result, as these historical developments happened, Gentile Christian apologists starting as early as the second century began to turn against the Jews. They characterized them as the Christ killers.

Let’s look at the Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD. The writer insisted that the Old Testament was never meant to be read literally but was to be interpreted allegorically or spiritually. He argued that only the Christian could make sense of the Bible. Those carnal Jews, as he called them, with their earthly mindset, had failed to recognize the hidden messages of their own scriptures. And as a result, he had eternally forfeited their entitlement to the covenant promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

How about Ignatius of Antioch? He said that “Those who partake of the Passover are partakers of those who killed Jesus.” Justin Martyr, he claimed that God’s covenant with Israel was no longer valid and that Gentiles had replaced the Jews. Additionally, he was the first to identify the Church as the true spiritual Israel. You’ll hear that a lot. And he declared that the plight of the Jews, their exile and persecution had happened in fairness and justice because what? They had slain the just One.

Melito of Sardis, he accused the Jews of deicide when he proclaimed, “The King of Israel slain with Israel’s right hand. alas, for the new wickedness of a new murder.” Irenaeus was a student in the Polycarp, who was in turn a disciple of the Apostle John. He declared this. “The house of Jacob and the people of Israel are disinherited from the grace of God.” And he argued this because he said, “They have rejected the Son of God and they slew Him.”

Tertullian of Carthage, he blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus. And he had argued because they had rejected God. Cyprian of Carthage was a student of Tertullian and he wrote this. “I’ve endeavored to show that the Jews departed from God and lost God’s favor, while the Christians succeeding to their place deserving well of the Lord by faith and coming out of all the nations from the whole world, we Christians, when we pray, say our Father because He has begun to be ours and He has ceased to be the Father of the Jews who have forsaken Him.”

Clement of Alexandria claimed that Israel had denied the Lord and thus they had forfeited their place as the true Israel. Hippolytus of Rome. He is considered by many the most important theologian of the third century. He was a student of Irenaeus, and he declared that the Jews had been darkened in the eyes of the souls with a, what he said, and a darkness so utter and everlasting that they were destined to be slaves to the nations, not for 100, 400 years in Egypt, but not 70 in Babylon, but forever.

Origen of Alexandria was responsible for very much antisemitism. Antisemitism is the term for the hatred of the Jewish people. It was all based on his assertion that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus. He said this, “We say with confidence that they,” the Jews, “will never be restored to their former condition. For they committed a crime of the most unhallowed kind in conspiring against the Savior of the human race. It accordingly behooved that the city where Jesus underwent these sufferings to perish utterly, the Jewish nation to be overthrown, and the invitation of happiness offered by God should pass to others, the Christians.”

By 305, we reached the Council of Elvira, an ecclesiastical synod of Spanish clerics in Grenada, Spain. The council voted to prohibit Christians from even sharing a meal with a Jew, even marrying a Jew, blessing a Jew, or ever observing the Sabbath.

Well, let’s look at the legalization of replacement theology in the Roman Empire. A great turning point now that we’ve reached in the history of Christianity. Constantine became a Christian in 306 AD. He adopted Christianity, and it became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 321 AD. And as we’ve seen by the beginning of the fourth century, replacement theology and its virulent antisemitism had become entrenched in Christian thought. And when Christianity was given the approval of the empire overnight, the emperors began to enact into laws the concepts and claims of Christian theologians against Jews and Judaism.

In the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, favor was granted to Christianity, while synagogues were actually outlawed. Another edict issued in 315 AD authorized the burning of Jews if they were convicted of breaking any laws. And as the Church became increasingly dominant, further laws were passed that severely curtailed rabbinical Judaism. They prohibited conversions to Judaism, and they excluded from Jews of holding high office or serving in the military.

And as on commentator summed it up, “Instead of the Church taking the opportunity to spread its Gospel message of love, it truly became the Church triumphant ready to vanquish its foes.” Regarding the Jews to the council, changed the celebration of the resurrection from the Jewish Feast of First Fruits to Easter, you want to know where we got Easter, in an attempt to disassociate itself from the Jewish feasts.

The council stated, “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals, we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth, let us have nothing in common with this odious people.” In addition to calling them odious people, the council also referred to the Jews as polluted wretches, a most hostile rabble, and parasites. In other words, killing of the Father.

Eusebius of Caesarea taught that the promises of Scripture were actually meant for the Gentiles and the curses were always meant for the Jews. And he asserted that the Church had become the true Israel.

John Chrysostom, he was called the golden tongue. He was one of the greatest preachers in Church history. He had eight sermons he wrote just against the Jewish people. He said this, “The synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater, it is also a den of robbers and a lodging place for wild beasts. Jews are inveterate murderers possessed by the devil. Their debauchery and drunkenness give them the manner of a pig.” He denied that Jews could ever receive forgiveness. He claimed that it was a Christian’s duty to actually hate the Jews. And he claimed that the Jews worshiped Satan. And folks, this man was canonized as a saint.

Saint Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, he described the Jews as serpents wearing the images of Judas. “Their psalms and prayers are the braying of donkeys,” he said. He said, “They’re incapable of understanding scripture.”

Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, the one who converted Saint Augustine, he wrote, “The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are an odious assassins of Christ. And for killing God, it is no expiation possible, no indulgence for pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God has always hated the Jews,” he said. “It is essential that Christians hate them.”

Let’s get to Saint Augustine, one of the most famous of all the Church Fathers. His teachings had the greatest impact in theology that can be even felt today. When he asked the question, why has God allowed the Jews to exist, his answer was that “although the Jews deserve death, they are destined to wander the earth to witness the victory of the Church over the synagogue.” And in terms of replacement theology, he provided yet another cornerstone with his development of what’s called amillennialism, that there’s going to be no true 1,000 year reign of Christ, that had already begun when Jesus had come, and the Roman Catholic Church was the fulfillment of that kingdom promise made to Israel.

Well, let’s move into the Middle Ages. By the fifth century at the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Jews had been demonized, they’d been condemned, they’d been ostracized to the point that the Church had become purely a Gentile organization that was off limits to the very people who founded it.

These reviews were reinforced by Thomas Aquinas, who was the most important of all the medieval Catholic theologians. And he argued “because of the sin of deicide, the Jews were destined to perpetual slavery.” He further argued that “Jews should be compelled to work, rather than live in idleness and grow rich by usury. Jews should be forced to wear a distinctive badge.” Do you all see where this is going? In order to distinguish them from Christians. And Jews and heretics could legitimately be killed as a second warning.

To illustrate how severe the rejection was, consider this oath that the Church in Constantinople required the Jews to take in order to become a Christian. The Jew wanted to become saved. I’m not saying that Judaism leads to salvation. Only Jesus Christ leads to salvation. A Jew and a Gentile can come to Christ in salvation, but this is what the Church made them say before they could become part of the Church.

“I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications, propitiations, fasts, new moons, Sabbaths, superstitions, the hymns and chants and observances of the synagogue, and the food and drink of the Hebrews. In one word, I renounce everything Jewish by law, custom, and rite.” It goes on and on.

Similarly, the Visigoth Oath from the seventh century required that a Jewish convert to Jesus renounce every rite and observance of the Jewish religion. And they contained the promise that the person would, what they said, “never return to the vomit of Jewish superstition.”

Even following three so called friends of the Jews, they were held in low self-esteem. Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter the Venerable, and Pope Innocent III, all three spoke out murderous attacks on the Jewish people. Bernard of Clairvaux characterized the Jews in his writings as more than bestial, an evil seed, and a race who have not God for their Father but are of the devil.

Peter the Venerable, a contemporary of Bernard, was known as the meekest of men. He was a model of Christian charity, yet he said this to the Jews. “I doubt whether a Jew could really be a human.” He further referred to them as monstrous animals and brute beasts. And Pope Innocent III argued that the Jews should not be killed, but they should be left to wander the earth until their countenance is filled with shame.

In the Middle Ages, these two erroneous concepts that the Jews had become firmly established in Church doctrine, that one, the Jews could be considered Christ killers and therefore mistreated accordingly, and two, that the Church had replaced Israel and God had no further purpose for the Jewish people.

And folks, these teachings were reinforced all throughout the Crusades. Their major purpose was, of course, to free the Holy Land from the Muslims, but their hatred of Jews had been so instilled that as the Crusaders marched through Europe, they murdered every Jew they came across.

Pope Urban had given the Crusaders a guarantee of absolution for crimes committed in the greater cause. “If God wills it, it’s okay to kill a Jew and save your soul.” The Pope authorized the murder of the Jewish people. These atrocities committed in the name of Jesus, folks, were beyond imagination.

For example, after the Crusaders had captured Jerusalem on July 15th, 1099, the Jews were herded into a synagogue, the exits were blocked, the synagogues were surrounded by soldiers, they set the building on fire, and the Crusaders sang “Fairest Lord Jesus.”

Let’s look at some of the artistic because the Church at that time, you know, only about 25% of the people in the Middle Ages were literate. So what the churches would do is they’d build mighty stained glass windows and statues and other things that people could learn from. And one of these things was called, a sophisticated portrayal of replacement theology, it was called Ecclesia versus Synagoga. That’s the picture there.

Or the Church versus the synagogue. It personified the Church and the synagogue as rival queens. The Jewish queen was shown there blindfolded, bareheaded, and downcast. In one hand, she holds a broken staff and the other she clutches a tablet of the law, which is about to slip from her hands. The Church queen is depicted as triumphant, wearing a crown with a cross in one hand and a chalice in the other. And these statues were found, folks, in portals throughout cathedrals all over Europe. And they clearly communicated the idea that the Jews had been cast aside to make way for a new people of God.

Through that time too, there was called the blood libels where professing Christians spread myths, which helped to popularize the hatred and fear of the Jewish people. As a result, it became common among Christian groups to think of Jews as actual agents of Satan. One of the most popular anti-Jewish myths that gained widespread acceptance was the notion that the Jews had murdered Christians each year around Passover in order to drink the blood and perform Satanic rituals. This became the charge of a ritual called the blood libel.

And another common myth that had circulated during these years was that the Jews would steal the communion wafers and stab them with knives so they could kill Christ over and over again. The most notorious blood libel in the Middle Ages occurred in 1493. A two-year-old boy named Simon had disappeared in Trento, Italy. And his father blamed the Jewish community, and 15 Jews were charged with ritual murder and they were burned at the stake. The emotional story spread quickly throughout Europe and inspired many charges of ritual murder against the Jews.

And then the Black Death came. It killed one-third of the population in Europe. At that time, it was not known how the illness spread, but stories of course began to circulate that, what? The Jewish people were poisoning the wells. And of course, it was totally unfounded, but many Christians, they believed that myth. And one reason they believed it was because the Jews were not impacted by the Black Death like the Gentiles were. Why? Their cleanliness rituals, right. They actually washed their hands now and then.

Well, as the Gentiles were dying and the Jews were not, this led to accusations that the Jews were responsible for the Black Death. 60 Jewish communities were burned to the ground and all their occupants were killed. And in some places, Jews were actually tortured and burned to death in bonfires in hopes of stopping the Black Death.

Then there was distinguishing marks. The Fourth Lateran Council headed by Pope Innocent III in 1215 said the Jews must wear distinguishable dress and a colored badge of identification, which became common practice throughout Europe. You thought the Nazis made the Jews wear a badge, folks? This goes all the way back to 1215. They were also to be relegated to ghettos.

In the 11th century, large cities throughout Europe began to herd Jews into designated areas with the city that they called ghettos. The action was motivated, of course, by their hatred of the Jewish people. They considered them to be vermin, and it was decided they should be cut off from the rest of the population.

This led to what’s called pogroms, massive violent attacks against Jewish communities. They broke out in the 11th and the 12th centuries in France and Germany and England. The Black Plague in the 14th century provoked additional pogroms all throughout Europe. During these pogroms, Jews were murdered, synagogues were destroyed, and Torah scrolls were burned.

That led to the Inquisition in the 12th century. France had persisted well into the 14th century. It was originally launched to counter heresy within the Catholic church, but by 1242, it veered off course and began condemning the Talmud. It resulted in a burning of thousands of Jewish books, burning books. By 1288, the Inquisition produced the first mass burning of Jews at the stakes.

Closing

Tim Moore: Well, Nathan, it always shocks me to witness some of the vitriol expressed by some of the greatest names in Church history, men that we consider heroes of the faith.

Nathan Jones: I agree, Tim. You know, to think that even the father of the reformation, Martin Luther, called the Jews a miserable and accursed people, and he proposed that their synagogues, schools, and houses be burned to the ground. Luther’s antisemitic writings became the fuel that ignited the hatred of the Jewish people in our modern age.

Hitler referred to Luther in his book, Mein Kampf, as “A great warrior, a true statesman, and a great reformer.” The Nazis gleefully quoted Luther as they rose to power and launched the Holocaust, and then they used him to excuse their crimes afterwards.

Tim Moore: You would think that the horror of the Holocaust would’ve muted the virulent antisemitism among Christian leaders after World War II, and it did for a time. But hatred of the Jews has reared its satanic head once again in the 21st century in a new form called Anti-Zionism. Whereas antisemitism sought to drive the Jews from the lands where they lived, Anti-Zionism refuses to accept their right to live in their own land, the land of Israel.

Once more, the Church seems to be taking the lead in Satan’s Anti-Zionist aggressions. You’ll find modern day church leaders actively engaged in the Christian Palestinian movement and attending meetings, such as Christ at the Checkpoint in Bethlehem.

Nathan Jones: Christians have ignored the fact that God’s cornerstone covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, promises the title deed to the land of Israel to the descendants of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It’s an unconditional, irrevocable, and everlasting promise, and it was literally sealed in blood.

Tim Moore: God’s Land Covenant promises that Israel will one day become the prime nation of the world and that a great remnant of the Jews will come to believe in Jesus, Yeshua, as their promised Messiah.

Nathan Jones: And the Davidic Covenant promised an everlasting king who will descend from the line of King David. One day this Messiah will rule over the entire world from Jerusalem.

Tim Moore: So God has most definitely not washed His hands of the Jewish people. We Christians must remember what Paul declared. “I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew.” The promises of God remain, “yes and amen,” now and forever.

Let’s remember that the salvation of the Jewish people is God’s will. So my fellow Christians, let’s all bless the Jewish people by praying for their salvation.

Nathan Jones: Before we go, I want to thank our ministry’s founder, Dr. David Reagan, for generously granting me his permission to preach what I believe is one of his most important sermons. You can watch this sermon in its entirety on our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel.

Tim Moore: And I would encourage you all to ask your pastors to host a Lamb & Lion Ministries regional Bible prophecy conference at your church. People ask us all the time if we would come to their area and bring God’s prophetic Word. And I always tell them, you only have to ask us.
Tune in next episode as we continue this four-part series titled “Taking God at His Word.” Next week, Pastor Bob Russell will share touching insights into God’s promises to believers in Christ when we die. You won’t want to miss it. Godspeed!

Announcer: Christ in Prophecy is made possible through the faithful and generous support of viewers like you. Please consider making a donation to Lamb & Lion Ministries so that we can continue broadcasting the message of Jesus’s soon return. Thank you, and God bless you.

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