Recently I was asked a question that I thought would be easy to answer. After answering it, the response from the person asking the question led me to consider the need for more nuance the answer. Below is the product of seeking to provide a more complete and nuanced answer to the question of…

Where does anti-semitism come from and why is there so much hatred of the Jewish people?

For Christians, this question can be difficult.

We understand it was the Jewish leaders and those of the Jewish population, who were following the promptings of their leaders (Mark 16:6-15), that led to Christ being crucified by the Romans. Throughout history there have been a few reformers and perhaps millions of Christians ticked off at the Jewish because of this fact.

Are they wrong in their irritation and did it give rise to antisemitism, which is defined as hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people?

On both questions the answer is yes.

To be angry or hostile at all Jewish people for the crucifixion of Christ, is to misplace our anger and hostility, as ultimately it was God’s predetermined plan, before the foundation of the world, that Christ would die for the sin of all mankind. The means by which that occurred, was also predetermined by God (I Peter 1:18-21; Revelation 13:8).

Consider Peter’s words to the Jewish people present at his Pentecost message concerning Christ.

Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

Note that Peter acknowledges that Christ’s death and resurrection were the predetermined plan of God. He does lay some culpability on the Jewish people he was speaking with, who would have been present the day Christ died and possibly in the crowd consenting to His death. Despite this fact, Peter was not hostile towards them, but was speaking truth for the purpose of conviction that they might be saved.

Sadly, an error prone understanding of Judaism and the Jewish people, have led to pockets of antisemitism in the church, but that is not the broader sentiment among Christians in America. These realities did not factor into the reason I was asked the question concerning antisemitism.

The question was asked concerning current events on college campuses, where moronic and easily impressionable students shout “Death to Israel” because of Israel’s continuing proxy war against Iran and the Hamas terror group, in the Palestinian territory.

The question arises from current events at some Jewish community centers, and a world political system which is not in favor of an autonomous Israeli State. The question comes in a culture where we are hearing reports and statistics of rising antisemitism globally, which the rank-and-file Christian cannot confirm or deny and ought to be wary of given the lying state of the media.

Therefore, let us begin to walk through some truth concerning a rising antisemitism or a deceitful distraction, meant to hinder us from seeing what’s really occurring in the world.

DOES ANTI-SEMITISM EXIST?

Quite simply, yes, anti-semitism exists, as much as racism and ethnic hate exists in every culture under the sun. If one were to study world history they would find hatred between ethnic groups, between classes of economy, between those with different physical features, has caused much bloody conflict and will continue to do so.

To those who want to eradicate racism and other forms of hate, good luck, because that is like eradicating poverty. This will not happen, this side of heaven because of the stain of sin on human nature.

With the Jewish people, there happens to be an amplification of this hostility towards people who are different. The reason is quite biblical and goes back to directly after the fall of man, when the LORD sentenced man, woman, and the serpent.

Genesis 3:14-15 So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

This passage is called the Protoevangelium or the first prophecy concerning Christ’s victory over sin, death and Satan. Pay particular attention to the phrase revealing Satan would “bruise His heel”. The word “bruise” gives the idea of striking at Christ’s heel.

How would Satan do this? By attacking the people who would bring forth the Seed (the Messiah), who would defeat the Devil, once and for all. Who were the people to bring forth Messiah? The Jewish people. Hence this passage is prophetically referring to the birth of antisemitism.

Consider that almost immediately, Satan began his plan of hostility towards the people who would bring forth the Seed of the woman.

In Genesis 4 Cain kills Abel, the one who brought the correct sacrifice of blood for atonement, foreshadowing the Lamb of God.

Consider the incursion of the watcher angels, referred to as the sons of God who came into or took the daughters of men for wives (Genesis 6:1-6). These abominable unions produce the Nephelium, who were giants, who’s evil and violence aided in corrupting all men, except Noah and his family. In this plan the Devil, was attempting to stop the Seed from coming forth, by corrupting all humanity.

Consider the tower of Babel, which was in direct defiance of God’s command after the flood to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This was an attempt to corrupt the person whose offspring would bring forth the Messiah. That person was Abraham.

Consider the rage and murder of the Jewish infants in Egypt, in an effort to kill Moses, who foreshadows the true Deliverer, who is Christ the Lord (Exodus 2:15-22)—or the rage filled antisemitism of Hamann to wipe out the Jewish people (Esther)—or how Balaam taught the Moabites to corrupt Israel through sexual immorality (Revelation 2:14).

All these actions were done against the Jewish people, to forwards Satan’s plan to corrupt or kill the Seed before He would come forth. This hatred of God is seen in hatred of His chosen people, to hinder or stop the coming Messiah.

Psalm 2 clearly outlines to whom the hatred is clearly directed.

Psalms 2:1-3 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.”

Let me be clear, antisemitism does still exist. As to if it is on the rise, I will conjecture that point.

Is antisemitism evil? Yes, but let me say the reason we are hearing about a rise in antisemitism is more about political purposes and distracting the nations from a proliferation that out distance’s hatred for any other group on the planet.

Let us begin with the fact that when Christ returns, all nations will be aligned against Him, which also includes Israel itself.

Christians around the world need to remember that the true Israel of God is not every Jewish born person, but the remnant. This remnant was written of by Paul and comes to salvation the same way you and I do, by repentance and placing their faith in Christ’s Person and what He accomplished in His death and resurrection (Romans 11:1-7).

In this understanding Christians must refuse to be used by conservative politicians that want to give aid and a stamp of approval on all the Israeli government does; this is a terrible error. Israel is, in fact, hostile towards our faith and our Savior, and deports missionaries who share the Gospel with Jewish people in Israel. The Jewish state, religion and culture persecute Jews who leave Judaism to follow Christ.

It is undeniable that hatred against the Jews is a historical fact, and yes for the reason of the war against the Seed. But Israel is largely on Satan’s side, in the ward against Messiah that will continue until He returns.

It must also be stated that the hatred of the Jewish people and their being without their homeland, was in part because of their national rejection of Messiah Yeshua, until a time when they could see the truth and a remnant will.

Consider a passage of scripture, that will shed light on whether antisemitism is on the rise.

Revelation 12:13-17 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Prior to these verses (in Revelation 12) we find that there is a war in heaven, where Satan is cast out of his God given dominion, as the prince of the power of the air. He immediately attempts to eradicate the woman (Israel) who brought forth Messiah. The earth rises to aid the nation of Israel, at which time Satan turns his attention on the rest of the woman’s offspring in verse 17, who are Christians (us).

What I am about to say is not dogma, but a personal and biblically formed opinion.

Remember what occurred after the Holocaust. The nations of the world said never again and the death of 6 to 7 million Jewish people, became the impetus for the United Nations charter for Israel to exist. Since that time in 1948, the Jewish state has fought a few wars for their existence yet has remained sovereign. Since that time antisemitism has not grown but declined. This is not to say it is gone completely.

In the 76 years since the Holocaust and subsequent birth of the Jewish state, more Christians have been martyred for the faith, than in the previous 1948 years. The number of Christians murdered for their faith is in the 10’s of millions multiplied many times over, since the founding of the church of Jesus Christ.

In the world’s concern for rising antisemitism, they are missing the hundreds of thousands of Christ followers being killed every year, not to mention the exponential increase of other forms of persecution against Christians.

Consider the outrage over Israel’s war against Iran and Hamas and how congress and conservatives are up in arms over perhaps a couple hundred idiot college students, who shout “Death to Israel”.

These students will no more enact violence against a Jewish person, than they are likely to every be a productive human being aiding the betterment of society, but there have been congressional hearings concerning this behavior. Over the last year commercials concerning a blue square to support Jewish people, against antisemitism, have flooded our T.V. and computer monitors.

Where is the outrage over 8000 Nigerian followers of Christ slaughtered by Islamic extremists in that nation, in 2023? Where is congregational out rage over the persecution and ethnic cleansing against tens of thousands of Armenian brothers and sisters in Christ, occurring for decades? Where is the concern over the plight of our brothers and sisters in India, persecuted in large numbers, by a regime that wants to eradicate our faith from their country?

There is very little concern because evangelical leaders in congress and the church, rarely say anything about the slaughter. Yet we often hear them talk about support for Israel, as a rule, with vitriol for anyone who questions their support of a nation that is not following YHWH and have rejected their Messiah.

If there is a proliferation of hate, it is far and away against followers of Jesus Christ.

Consider how careful authorities’ politicians, on both sides of the isle have been to discuss the murderous shooting of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff, at the Covenant Christian School in Nashville Tennessee.

The shooter, who was killed on scene, was a 28-year-old woman named Audrey Hale. This disturbed woman, believed she was a transgendered male, and was a former student. The authorities have had her notebooks with a manifesto and motives since the day of the shootings and refuse to release the information publicly.

In November of 2023, some of the information was leaked to outrage and threats of legal action against the leakers. The reason is that Audrey specifically targeted this children and school staff, because they were Christians who stood against LGBTQ rights and because they were the recipients of “white privilege”.

The authorities desire to hide the Black Lives Matters and LGBTQ agenda, being put forth, for the purpose of stirring both state sanction and violence against those who keep the commands of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Hostility and prejudice against the Jews is repugnant, yet the response to ignoramus students in the Ivy League shouting “Death to Israel” with a full congressional hearing, is disproportionate to zero hearings about violence against Christian Students, which have proliferated since 1997.

Be careful brethren, anti-Semitism is a word for us all to virtue signal and a means of distracting us from the what is really occurring.

There is one group that most of the Jewish people will hate when Christ returns. If you are called by Christ’s name, you are in that number and what a blessed number that is.