Anti-Semitism: A Growing Threat

With anti-Semitism on the rise throughout the world, believers in the Jewish Messiah should be at the forefront of love and acceptance of our Jewish brothers and sisters. We should remember that Paul says in Romans 11:26 that all Israel will be saved, and be eager, prepared and willing to share with them the testimony about their Jewish Messiah with our lives, actions and words. We should not imitate the actions of men in church history who pushed them away and persecuted them in their arrogance, but join with them in brotherly love and recognize that we have much in common: The Scriptures and a genuine love and fear of G-d!

Martin Luther was a man who was influential in the molding of much of Christianity’s doctrine. He is heralded by many as a great father and someone who should be admired, studied and hallowed by all Christians. Surely, many have heard that Martin Luther was anti- Semitic, but not many know what great lengths he took in his endeavor to persecute God’s chosen people, and what harsh and evil words came from his heart.

All of the following quotations are from a 65,000 word treatise he wrote towards the end of his life entitled “ On The Jews and Their Lies”. This work is so radical in its anti-Semitism that is was used by the Nazi Party at the Nuremburg rallies, and was labeled by the Nazi controlled Newspaper Dur Sturmer as the most radically anti-semetic tract ever written. Nearly all anti-Semitic literature in Nazi-Germany (Luther’s home) quoted Luther’s writings. It greatly saddens me that this is the testimony that Martin Luther left the world regarding how those who call themselves by the name of Christ treat the Children of Abraham.

These are the opening sentences to Martin Luther’s work:
I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them.

Now just behold these miserable, blind, and senseless people.

Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid fools...

Luther states that they are "a base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.

"full of the devil's feces ... which they wallow in like swine,"

Luther says that the synagogue (the place of worship of Yeshua) is an:
"incorrigible whore and an evil slut "

...but then eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!
Sharp mercy?

If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies that is, longer than two thousand years.

However, we must avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter…

Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal death.


Below is Martin Luther’s astonishing eight-fold plan to get rid of the Jews either by expulsion or conversion:
• "First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..."
• "Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ..."
• "Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ..."
• "Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ..."
• "Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ..."
• "Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. ... Such money should now be used in ... the following [way]... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed [a certain amount]..."
• "Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow... For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
• "Eighth, If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."
Ephesians 2:6 says that Yeshua came “that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ”

But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. For our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God.

In conclusion to Luther’s treatise he condones their murder:
There is no other explanation for this than the one cited earlier from Moses — namely, that God has struck [the Jews] with 'madness and blindness and confusion of mind.' So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them. Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite all their murdering, cursing, blaspheming, lying, and defaming; we protect and shield their synagogues, houses, life, and property. In this way we make them lazy and secure and encourage them to fleece us boldly of our money and goods, as well as to mock and deride us, with a view to finally overcoming us, killing us all for such a great sin, and robbing us of all our property (as they daily pray and hope). Now tell me whether they do not have every reason to be the enemies of us accursed Goyim, to curse us and to strive for our final, complete, and eternal ruin!

I pray that our generation will be one that seeks to mend the centuries of wrongdoing and murder done in the name of Christ and extend the hand of friendship to the blessed people that has given the world the scriptures and the Messiah. Let us remember that God’s promise in Genesis 12 stands fast: 3And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. I think it is also noteworthy to add that those who make up the Arab population are also descended from Abraham, and this promise applies to them as well.

It is quite unsettling to me that so many greatly influential men who have been openly anti-Semitic such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Origen, John Chrysostom, Augustine, Peter the Venerable, Martin Luther and John Calvin, have been held up in high regard as “Fathers of the Faith” who have formed or reformed church doctrine, and especially as it deals with the Jewish people and the Torah. These men also fostered great hatred for all things “Jewish” in the bible and did everything they could to divorce the church from its Jewish heritage. In The Bible the commandments are always referred to as “God’s ways” (Isaiah Chapter 2) and are paired with the phrasing “you shall be holy for I am Holy. I find it remarkable that one of the great cries of the reformation was “Sola Scriptura!”, yet by this they meant only the “New Testament” and openly threw out God’s Torah; Martin Luther said “we don’t want to hear or see Moses”. I pray that all of us would look into the scriptures and ask the same question that Esther asked before her time came, “what pleases the King?” The beloved disciple John writes in his first epistle “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. (3)”, and again in verse 6: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

Yeshua came as an example for us all, coming to bring unity and salvation to all nations, through His people Israel. I pray that we test all of our theology, actions, thoughts and doctrine through His words, contained in the entirety of scripture. May our lives be a living sacrifice to him, pursuing the joy and encouragement of others at every hour and in every moment. I pray that Jesus will draw nearer to each and every one of us, and encourage and sanctify us through his eternal spirit given to us through grace. May His Peace and Mercy be with us all.