ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE CHURCH

Anti-Semitism in the church is a painful and deeply troubling contradiction. The church should be a place of moral guidance, conscience, and spiritual purity. When prejudice against the Jewish people emerges in such a place—whether through sermons, teachings, symbols, or silence—it undermines the integrity and human dignity of the faith. This is contrary to the Christian faith and overstates the gospel message. The church is called to bear witness to God in love, truth, and justice; when it practices hostility toward Jews, it departs from its mission and the Word of the Lord, who is Himself a Jew.

Let's remember our common roots

The Christian faith is deeply rooted in Judaism. Jesus was a Jew, from a family of Jewish origin, and raised according to the holy book of Israel. They prayed and sang Psalms, practiced the Law, and attended synagogue services. His disciples, the early church, and the writers of the New Testament were almost all Jewish. There was no common spiritual heritage because Christianity did not replace Judaism as something foreign and inferior. On the contrary, Christianity emerged from it. When the church takes away this truth, it risks giving a wrong understanding of the Bible and of Christ himself.

False theologies that fuel anti-Semitism

1. Replacement Theology

As the church expanded and multiplied in number, more and more Gentiles were converted, and when it became predominantly non-Jewish (as early as the second century), the church began to separate and distance itself from Judaism. The most significant theological change was the emergence and development of Replacement Theology.

What is Replacement Theology? Replacement Theology teaches: that God’s covenant with Israel is no longer valid because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah, that the Christian church is now the “new Israel” that inherits all of God’s promises, and that the Jewish people are cursed and rejected by God. The church has permanently replaced Israel because of their unbelief. The church is now the “new Israel” and God no longer has any plan for the Jews. They no longer matter.

And what does the Bible say?

God’s covenant with Israel is an everlasting covenant and does not end at the first appearing of Christ. “I will make an everlasting covenant with them; I will never stop doing good to them.” Jeremiah 32:40 God is faithful to his promises, and God’s covenant with the Jewish people still stands “for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” Rom. 11:29

God has not rejected his chosen people. “I ask therefore, Has God rejected his people? By no means!” Rom. 11:1

We as Christians have not replaced the Jewish people, we have only been grafted like a wild olive branch onto a tame olive tree, onto the Israelite covenant tree. The apostle Paul illustrates this beautifully: “If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and now share in the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast.”

God’s promises to Israel are still valid, both for the purpose He intended for them and for the land He gave them. God says to Abraham: “I will establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout their generations—an everlasting covenant—and I will be your God and your God after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you all the land of Canaan, in which you now live, as an everlasting possession.” Genesis 17:7-8 God owns the entire earth, and He determines which people He will give a specific portion to. “He made from one man every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined the appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.” Acts 17:26 God’s promise to give the entire land of Canaan as an everlasting possession was given to Israel, not to the church.

2. "The Jews are Christ-killers."

This statement has been used throughout the centuries to justify the persecution, deportation, discrimination, and massacre of Jews. This is the accusation that the entire Jewish people throughout the centuries are collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Christ.

And what is the truth? It is true that no one​—neither the Romans nor the Jews—​could take Jesus’ life. Jesus says to the apostle Peter, who tried to defend him from arrest with his sword: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father to provide me with at this moment more than twelve legions of angels?” Matthew 26:53 A Roman legion has six thousand soldiers, which means a total of seventy-two thousand angels who should be at Christ’s disposal. And what power that is is illustrated by the fact that just one angel killed one hundred and seventy-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. (1 Kings 19:35)

No one took Jesus' life, nor could they. Jesus willingly and willingly gave his life, laid it down as a sacrifice for the salvation of all mankind. All of us sinners are guilty of Jesus' death.

3. "His blood be on us and on our children."

No nation can be held collectively responsible for crimes committed in its name by individuals within its ranks. That is contrary to all reason and Christian teaching. The criminals who committed the crimes are responsible. Today's Germans are not responsible for the crimes of the Nazis in World War II.

This statement was often used to justify the worst persecution and killing of the Jews. Such an interpretation is an absolute misuse of the Holy Scriptures. This statement can only apply to a specific group of people, to those who shouted it, and not to all Jews.

Both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament explicitly reject collective guilt. “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents; each one shall be put to death for his own sin.” Deuteronomy 24:16 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.” Ezekiel 18:20

Christian theology establishes personal moral responsibility, not ethnic or hereditary guilt. Accusing the Jewish people of collective guilt violates basic biblical principles of justice.

Children's shoes, from those who disappeared in Auschwitz

4. "Synagogue of Satan"

This statement appears only twice in the New Testament (Revelation 2:9 and 3:9) and it does not refer to the entire Jewish people, but to certain local opponents of the early Christian community in Asia Minor. Instead of being understood as a message to specific false teachers in Revelation, this statement has been taken out of context, allegorically interpreted, and misused as a message to all Jews of all time. God is done with the Jews, and they are here to be persecuted. No wonder a young man who considers himself a Christian nearly burned down the largest synagogue in Mississippi and all the holy books in it. When the police arrested him and asked why he did it, he replied, “Because it is the synagogue of Satan. Jesus is Lord!”

But this is not our New Testament. The New Testament records that Jesus was born King of the Jews, and during his first public appearance he goes to the Jewish synagogue, the one in Nazareth where he grew up, where he reads the book of the prophet Isaiah and participates in the service. Jesus regularly participated and spoke in the services in the synagogues and in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Through the Jewish people, Jesus the Messiah, our Savior came to us. Jesus was born of a Jewish virgin. Satan hates Jesus the Messiah, therefore Satan hates the Jewish people. Satan is the author of anti-Semitism.

Not all Jewish people rejected Christ, many accepted Him. The New Testament was written to us by Jews who accepted Jesus, all the disciples were Jews, the seventy that Jesus sent out on mission were all Jews. The entire New Testament was written by Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus is a Jew by body and nationality, and the entire New Testament is a Jewish text. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman (a Gentile), “For salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22

When Jesus comes to earth again, he will not come to the Vatican, nor to Constantinople, nor to Moscow, nor to New York, nor to London or Paris, he will come to Jerusalem.

5. Theology of Dominance

There has been a recent teaching that we can call “Christ is King” or Dominion Theology. It is based on a postmillennial view of eschatology (the end times). They believe that Jesus will return to earth only after his followers have completed the great undertaking of conquering the entire world and changing socio-political conditions to align with some kind of Christian kingdom. According to this understanding, the Jewish people and their covenant with God have been wiped out. The land of Israel is to be conquered, and Jerusalem is to be the seat of this Christian empire. This is a strongly anti-Semitic teaching. They believe in all the negative things against the Jews. They blame the Jewish people for various ideologies that have emerged in the world, such as communism and socialism, etc. And they blame the Jews for the fact that they have not yet succeeded in establishing this Christian kingdom. In this way they open the minds of many Christian students to all kinds of conspiracy theories about the Jews.

I am not saying that everyone who advocates this teaching is anti-Semitic, but it can confuse and poison the minds of many ordinary believers.

What does God's Word teach us?

It teaches us that when Jesus comes again, he will establish his thousand-year Kingdom on earth and true righteousness will reign. And then the Jews will accept him. “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’” Rom. 11:26 “And upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem there will be poured out the spirit of grace and of supplication. And they will look on me, whom I have pierced, and they will mourn for me, as one mourns for an only son.” Zechariah 12:10 And they will say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 23:24

Until then, our mission as believers is not to build any political Christian Kingdom, but to love and accept all people, regardless of national and religious affiliation, skin color, and social status, to witness the Gospel to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, to win people for Christ, to make disciples, and to be the prophetic voice of God in society.

"By their fruits you will know them."

We can recognize how good a theology is by the fruits it produces. And the fruits that these erroneous and anti-Semitic teachings have brought are: hostility, prejudice and discrimination against the Jewish people, deprivation or reduction of their civil rights, false accusations and condemnations, justification of the isolation of Jews in ghettos, forced conversions, expulsions, murders and ethnic cleansing by the Crusaders, pogroms in Imperial Russia, massacres, mass murders of Jews simply because they are Jews. Even Hitler used the books of Martin Luther, especially his book "The Jews and Their Lies", to justify the Holocaust, in which six million members of the Jewish people were killed in the most heinous ways by the Nazis (which is not a Christian ideology, but a pagan one) in gas chambers and concentration camps during World War II.

A call to humility, questioning, and repentance

First of all, we need to approach the Jewish people with humility. This is necessary to undo the long history of pride that has led to anti-Semitic teachings and actions. The Hebrew apostle Paul wrote to the Gentile disciples of Christ: “Do not boast (be arrogant) about the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not nourish the root, but the root nourishes you.” Rom. 11:18

Anti-Semitism in the church misinterprets and misrepresents the Holy Scriptures, brings shame to Christ, and brings immense pain and suffering to the people through whom God brought salvation to the world. Opposition is not an attack on the church, but an act of loyalty to God.

True repentance leads to change. As followers of Christ, we are called to bear witness to the Gospel that breaks down the walls of enmity and reconciles humanity with God and with one another. Rejecting anti-Semitism is not a matter of choice, but is essential to living out the love, truth, and justice of Christ.

When the church acknowledges its mistakes, it opens the door for God’s grace to work. In repentance we say, “We see and recognize the pain and harm we have caused the Jewish people. We are sorry and repentant for it. We choose a better way forward.”

Aleksandar Vitakić, ICEJ Serbia