Based on what’s committed against the United States and people’s talk about Islamophobia, one might think Moslems would receive more crimes against them for their religion. They don’t. The FBI reports 227 Moslem victims in its last report in 2019 and 1,032 Jewish victims. Jews themselves also know that antisemitism grows rapidly.
For most of my life (born 1962), evangelical Christians were a very reliable ally of Jewish people and especially Israel. Yet, by far I hear and read among evangelicals more anti-Jewish language and writing than I’ve ever heard. I did not grow up around Jewish people and don’t ever remember even meeting a Jew until I was in college, but I still heard on a very regular basis, “The Jews are God’s chosen people.” I thought that too.
As I read more broadly, I came to understand that American Jews voted for people and issues I opposed. I still said, “The Jews are God’s chosen people.” I continue to think that God blesses a nation that supports the Jewish people. This comes from understanding of the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12:1-3. This kind of support seems to match no other support for any other people.
When I arrived in California to start a church in the San Francisco Bay Area, I met many, many Jewish people, including in door-to-door evangelism. I would approach a door and see the mezuza on the doorpost. I always called it the shema. I assumed it was a Jewish home. After numbers of conversations, the mezuza became a kind of warning: this conversation would not go well. As friendly as I was, and however much I told the Jewish people I loved them, ninety-plus percent of the instances Jewish people treated me poorly at their doors. I reacted to that by still thinking, “The Jews are God’s chosen people.”
Over time, I added some Jewish friends through involvement in orchestra and other providential events. Every year a Jewish professor and I exchange correspondence after having met as bus mates on a trip we shared from Missouri to Oklahoma. I wrote a script on how Baptists rescued Jews during World War 2 in Europe. It was the story of Ivan Jaciuk, that I first read in The Righteous by the late Sir Martin Gilbert. Israel planted a tree for Jaciuk along the Avenue of the Righteous in Jerusalem. I talked by phone with the son of David Prital, the latter whom Jaciuk saved during the holocaust.
Why do the Jews get such special favor from true Christians? The support of the Jews is an acknowledgement or recognition of God’s unfinished plans for a chosen people. It is affirming God’s promises. God is true in His nature. Paul reflected Old Testament teaching when he wrote (Roman 11:26): “all Israel shall be saved.” He wrote what Isaiah did (45:17): “Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation.” We know Israel will be saved. We know how and when Israel will be saved.
God will save Israel because He promised He would to Abraham. He promised He would to Isaac, Jacob, and King David. He continued to promise that He would through His prophets.
Much of the antisemitism I see comes from those who spiritualize to the church the Old Testament promises to Israel, like Roman Catholics and Lutherans have and do. Today it’s spread to evangelicalism for many reasons. The church to them is a spiritual Israel in, through, and by which God will fulfill His promises. In so doing, God replaces Israel. Israel then becomes an enemy to the true plan of God on earth.
The promises God made to Israel at least apply to Israel. They also apply to everyone else based upon the Abrahamic covenant, because through Abraham’s seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. It’s true that God will only save believing Israel, but Israel will believe. The Old Testament provides that testimony in Isaiah 52-53 and Zechariah 14 among other places. The Apostle Paul reiterates it in Romans 11 and John in his book of Revelation.
God loves Israel. Like God told Hosea to love Gomer, God loves Israel (Hosea 3:1). New Testament believers love Israel like God loves Israel.
God commanded to preach the gospel first to the Jews (Romans 1:16). The Jews are a priority for the gospel. They might not listen, but true evangelical believers go to Jews anyway (Matthew 13:13-15, Isaiah 6:9-10).
The message of Obadiah was that God will restore His people (vv. 16-18), and despite Israel’s sin, He will punish those who oppress Israel (vv. 1-15). God judged Edom for mistreating Israel.
We know God will save Israel. We should treat Jews like we know God will save tens of thousands of Jews (Revelation 7 and 14). As evil as many Jews are and live, Israel is one of the greatest friends of the United States.
Some anti-Semites today might say, those Jews control Hollywood and spew out that filth. You don’t have to watch it though. You don’t need to support Hollywood to support the Jews. In general, Hollywood presents Christianity in a negative way. That’s influenced by a strong Jewish influence. It’s sad, but they’re still God’s chosen people.
Jews spread their antichrist materials. More than not they support abortion and immoral causes. U. S. Jews are far less religious and far more atheist than average. None of the negative activity of the Jews means God won’t save them. We know He will.
God’s future plan still revolves around the Jews. God doesn’t lie. We know God’s plan does include the Jews. As it relates to Jews, we should act like we know it.
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