Has the Church not learned by now that antisemitism does not mix well with the teachings of Jesus? And that anti-Zionism often masks an underlying antisemitism?

Once Again, Christian Antisemitism | Article | AskDrBrown

Last month, Rev. Jerry Pillay, former general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa was elected to lead the World Council of Churches. This is a prestigious and influential position. Yet Rev. Pillay has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to “apartheid,” even speaking of the “exclusionary and violent character of the Israeli Zionist project” back in 2016. This should raise concerns for Christians from all backgrounds.

This is all the more true with Rev. Pillay, the dean of the University of Pretoria, who should really know better. After all, as a black South African he understands the real nature of apartheid and how evil it is. Blacks under South African apartheid had no equal rights at all.

Such is not remotely the case among Israeli Arabs. They represent 20 percent of the population and have full legal rights. They are elected and selected as leaders throughout Israeli society at the highest levels, including members of the government.

There are two Arab parties in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, while Arab judges serve throughout the Israeli court system, from the Supreme Court all the way down to local labor courts.

Arab Israelis are present in all sectors of media and are active in the healthcare system as well as almost every business sector. They even serve in Israel’s army and security services.

Sadly, by elevating Rev. Pillay to this senior leadership role in the World Council of Churches, the WCC has also elevated his anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

Rev. Pillay could reply that he was speaking only of the treatment of the Palestinians living in Gaza Strip and Judea-Samaria (commonly called the West Bank). But there, too, the charges are false, since the Israeli government has sought to find fair and equitable solutions for the people living there, but the Palestinian leadership has consistently let their own people down. And even still, charges of “apartheid” do not apply.

Ironically, but not surprisingly, within days of the announcement that Rev. Pillay would lead the WCC, “The US Presbyterian Church voted to declare Israel an apartheid state and establish a Nakba Remembrance Day, as well as passing two other resolutions highly critical of Israel on Tuesday at the American religious body's 225th General Assembly.”

They declared that “Israel’s laws, policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid,” alleging that Palestinian Arabs are systematically oppressed with the goal of racial domination.

The PCUSA claims that Arabs living in Israel and Biblical Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) have “an inferior status” and Palestinian Arabs are unable to participate in the “political, social, economic and cultural life of their country.”

Disregarding the fact that Israeli law applies to all Israeli citizens – Arabs and Jews – and that Palestinian Arabs are governed by laws within the Palestinian Authority, the PCUSA claims that two sets of laws exist for Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, asserting that they oppress and discriminate against the latter.

It also alleges that Palestinian Arab land and water were stolen by “Jewish-only settlements” and that Palestinians were denied freedom of residence and movement, living in “separate reserves and ghettos.” These allegations are as inaccurate and exaggerated as they are ugly, with the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs living in and under the autonomous Palestinian Authority.

Yet not only that there is no basis for comparison to the allegations of apartheid, but Rev. Pillay and the PCUSA seem to disregard Palestinian Arab delegitimization of Israel’s very right to exist. And what of the steady stream of attacks against Israeli Jews, often spurred on by the rhetoric of the Palestinian leaders. Is there no other side to the story?

Remarkably, despite its extreme biases and, one could argue, heretical beliefs, the PCUSA wants to use its position to be peacemakers. They state their position “is pursued with the hope it will lead to a peaceful reconciliation for the people of Israel and Palestine similar to that which occurred in South Africa when apartheid was internationally acknowledged.”

So, just “Christians spoke out in the 1950s against segregation in the United States and later against apartheid in South Africa,” today, “They must again raise their voices and condemn Israel’s discrimination against Palestinians and give a name to the crime against humanity that this discrimination represents, the crime of apartheid.”

One of the elements of antisemitism is the holding of Jews to a different standard than others. So, we ask, where are the PCUSA resolutions decrying actual crimes against humanity rather than ascribing this hateful allegation only to Israel? 

If it wasn’t enough to misrepresent what apartheid was and how it does not apply to Israel, the PCUSA resolution went even further by evoking the Holocaust.

“After World War II when the horror of the Nazi Holocaust was revealed, Jews around the world said ‘never again.’” And this is now being used against the Jewish people in Israel, who are still in a daily fight for survival?

The statement continued, “Christians too vowed that never again would they be silent if a government passed laws establishing and maintaining the domination by one ethnic group over another ethnic group through systematic separation, oppression and denial of basic human rights. Silence in the face of evil was wrong then, and it is wrong now.”

So, today, it is the Israeli Jews who are the Nazis and the Palestinians who are the innocent Jews. Does the PCUSA have no shame? Is this denomination that tone deaf to historical and contemporary realities?

In order to counter charges that the PCUSA is antisemitic, the leaders recommended that the church replace references to antisemitism with “anti-Jewish,” asserting that antisemitism “encompasses other people groups in addition to our Jewish siblings.”

But as we all know, the term “antisemitism” was coined with reference to Jews alone, not all Semitic peoples (such as the Arabs today or the Babylonians of old).

There is no ambiguity here at all, but rather than be charged with antisemitism (certainly a fair charge), they want to rewrite the dictionary. Seriously? What would Jesus say?

The Buffalo Shooter Wanted to Murder Blacks and Jews, Especially Jews

America is reeling again at the news of yet another mass shooting, this time resulting in 10 people dead and 3 injured. In particular, the Black American community is reeling, since they were the particular targets of a depraved White teenager, allegedly a self-professed White-supremacist. How can such a thing happen in this day and age? 

Now is the time for Americans Jews and Blacks to join together, backed by every follower of Jesus in the nation, and declaring, “There is no place for this kind of murderous hatred in our land!”

The Buffalo Shooter Wanted to Murder Blacks and Jews, Especially Jews | Articles | AskDrBrown

America is reeling again at the news of yet another mass shooting, this time resulting in 10 people dead and 3 injured. In particular, the Black American community is reeling, since they were the particular targets of a depraved White teenager, allegedly a self-professed White-supremacist. How can such a thing happen in this day and age? Innocent Black Americans having their blood spilled by an evil White man?

Yet the evil in this young man’s heart goes deeper still. It was not just Black Americans he targeted for murder. He was a Jew-hater as well, actually calling for Gentile Americans to declare war on American Jews.

In his own words (from the manifesto he posted online), “The real war I’m advocating for is the gentiles vs the Jews. We outnumber them 100x, and they are not strong by themselves.

“By their Jewish ways, they turn us against each other. When you realize this you will know that the Jews are the biggest problem the Western world has ever had. They must be called out and killed.”

This is reminiscent of the sentiments of Jew-killer John Earnest, himself a professing Christian, who told a 911 emergency line dispatcher, “I just shot up a synagogue . . . because Jewish people are destroying the White race.”

To be clear, I do not want to draw attention away from the very real tragedy that unfolded live and online on Saturday. (What kind of sick world are we living in?)

Ten men and women went out shopping and never came home. Others were seriously wounded. Families are in shock and agony. Who can imagine their grief?

May God give them comfort and hope in the midst of their unspeakable pain.

And tragically, this massacre only confirms the fears of many Black Americans, in whose minds racism is alive and well in our country and violent White supremacists are never far away.

May we rise up as a nation to condemn these evil acts and to demonstrate tangibly that they represent the sentiments of the tiniest, most demented fringe minority. Not on our soil! Not on our watch!

At the same time, we do well to recognize that White supremacists hate both Blacks and Jews. Both are considered different and therefore dangerous. Both are considered outsiders. And both, despite the white skin of most American Jews, are considered a threat to America’s whiteness.

As reported by the New York Post, “Through his ‘research,’ the self-described white supremacist and anti-Semite came to see low white birth rates around the world as a ‘crisis’ that ‘will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people.’”

This mirrors what John Earnest (himself only 19 at the time) wrote in his own manifesto: “It is unlawful and cowardly to stand on the sidelines as the European people are genocided [sic] around you. I did not want to have to kill Jews. But they have given us no other option.”

In the early 1990s, while walking the streets of Manhattan with a colleague of mine, himself a Jewish believer in Jesus like me, I encountered a group of Black Hebrew Israelites preaching on a street corner with a loud sound system.

The main speaker was railing against White Jews like me. He claimed we were not Jews at all but were the manifestation of Satan.

Never one to back away from confrontation, I approached their stage and asked him, “If we are not Jews, why did Hitler try to exterminate us?”

He gave a lame answer (although he actually quoted a few words in Hebrew to me!), and I walked on, only to sense in my spirit that I was not finished yet.

So, I turned back and began to shout out, “These men are preaching a religion of hate! Jesus preached a religion of love!” (At this, the burly bodyguards approached me with clubs in their hands, but I made clear that my intentions were entirely peaceful.)

Then I said, “We are both nations of liberated slaves, and one day, we’re going to find ourselves at the bottom of the barrel. As Blacks and Jews, we need each other!”

At that, as I was the only White person in the crowd (along with my friend), the listeners began to shout, “Death to the White man! Death to America!”

But I had made my point, which I believe to this day. (For my 2019 encounter with a similar group in Charlotte, NC, see here. For the 2019 murder of Jews in New Jersey by a Black man connected to Black Hebrew Israelites, see here.)

As Blacks and Jews in America, we do need each other.

White supremacists hate us both with a passion, and the lies being used to destroy Blacks are being used to destroy Jews.

We are both minorities. We are both “different.” And we are both considered a threat. (For the record, antisemites hate Jews who believe in Jesus just as they hate Jews who do not believe in Jesus, as Jewish Christians in Nazi Germany tragically learned.)

Sadly, the strong bond once felt by American Blacks and Jews, epitomized in the famous picture of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching arm and arm with Dr. Martin Luther King, has largely been severed.

Now is the time to talk face to face and overcome mutual suspicions and fears.

Now is the time for Americans Jews and Blacks to join together, backed by every follower of Jesus in the nation, and declaring, “There is no place for this kind of murderous hatred in our land!”

And now is the time to uproot the lies which fuel the fires of this hatred.

Theological Antisemitism at Home in the Presbyterian Church

Over the last decade, PCUSA has suffered a sizable decline in its churches, and membership. Perhaps this is because people realize PCUSA is as spiritually and theologically vacant as its pews, or perhaps it is the affirmation of God’s clear statement that He will curse those who curse Israel.

Theological Antisemitism at Home in the Presbyterian Church | Articles | AskDrBrown

By Dr. Michael Brown and Jonathan Feldstein

In a recent statement published on the annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), not only misrepresented and defamed Dr. King’s legacy, but he did so using some of the most vile antisemitic tropes singling out the Jewish people and Israel.

In his statement, Dr. Nelson wrote of Dr. King’s legacy and overcoming societal inequities in the US and all over the world. Listing a broad range of social problems, Dr. Nelson then seamlessly pivoted into antisemitic lies, mentioning only Israel in a whole world of injustice. 

“The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st-century slavery and should be abolished immediately. Given the history of Jewish humble beginnings and persecution, there should be no ambiguity as to the ethical, moral, and dehumanizing marginalization and enslavement of other human beings. The United States of America must be a major influencer of calling this injustice both immoral and intolerable. I…hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the U.S. government in ending the immoral enslavement.”

In fewer than 100 words, Dr. Nelson crossed about every red line imaginable. First, there is not only no slavery in Israel, but Israel is the only country in the world to ever rescue black Africans from persecution to freedom. Israel is a beacon for black Africa with tens of thousands of refugees streaming into Israel to find a life away from persecution in their countries.

Days after an antisemitic hostage event in a Texas synagogue, Dr. Nelson doubled down on the notion of Jewish influence and conspiracy theory which drove the Texas terrorist. How many others will be inspired by Nelson’s antisemitic stereotype?

Referencing “occupation in Palestine/Israel,” Dr. Nelson crosses another line suggesting that Israel has no legitimacy, and should be “abolished.”

Voicing this as he did is bad enough.  Doing so on the day on which we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy could not be more egregious and dishonest, misrepresenting and tarnishing Dr. King’s actual beliefs.  Dr. King was unambiguous in his understanding of Israel’s significance theologically, and said so on multiple occasions.

“How easy it should be to understand and support the right of the Jewish people to live in their ancient Land of Israel.  All men of goodwill exalt in the fulfillment of God’s promise that His people should return in joy to rebuild their plundered Land. This is Zionism. Nothing more and nothing less.” And noting Israel as a beacon of democracy, the antithesis of slavery, he said, “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”

As if he were rebuking Dr. Nelson directly, Dr. King was succinct, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews; you’re talking antisemitism.”

Of all the injustice in the world, the PCUSA statement uniquely singles out alleged injustice only in Israel, doing so in a way that’s dishonest.  Israeli Arabs are not only not enslaved, they are thriving, full equal citizens, leaders in many areas throughout Israeli society. There is no case, ever, anywhere, that a slave, was exalted to be member of the parliament of the enslaving society, a judge on its Supreme Court, as media personalities, doctors, lawyers, and even in the military. 

The unresolved conflict in parts of the Biblical Land of Israel that Nelson calls “occupied” disregard the fact that for decades there have been peace offers and territorial compromises on the table which the Palestinian Arab leadership has rejected, one after the other.  Not only that, Palestinian Arabs supported and heralded as heroes commit daily acts of terror against Israelis.  That’s too inconvenient an injustice for Dr. Nelson to acknowledge, not to mention the anthesis of Dr. King’s non-violence.

Among the responses to the PCUSA statement, the Kentucky Jewish Council sent an unanswered letter to Dr. Nelson. They “condemn(ed) the libelous, deeply antisemitic letter (whose) singular focus is on Israel while ignoring genuine human rights abuses around the world from the Uyghur genocide in China to…international terror by Iran show(ing) that your focus rather than on civil rights is on the Jewish people. (Using) Dr. King‘s name and legacy (like this) is a treacherous betrayal of his memory.”

Signed by Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, the letter concludes, “These words of division and bigotry have no place in our beloved community that Dr. King sought to build, and I urge you to retract them and to repent from the prejudice with which it was written.”

Over the last decade, PCUSA has suffered a sizable decline in its churches, and membership. Perhaps this is because people realize PCUSA is as spiritually and theologically vacant as its pews, or perhaps it is the affirmation of God’s clear statement that He will curse those who curse Israel. Of course, we are not God, but we also don’t believe in coincidences.

PCUSA spins its decline in a positive way, showing “no change in decline rate for membership” which essentially acknowledges that it is a sinking ship. When asked why their churches are disaffiliating with PCUSA, one main reason cited is PCUSA ministers regularly suggesting that the Bible is fiction. And if the Bible is fiction, then the biblical promises to Israel are fictional as well.

PCUSA has seen a decline in membership of more than 15% since 2016, slightly outpacing the drop in the number of PCUSA affiliated churches with a more than 10% decrease in the same period. It’s not surprising then that the total number of “professions of faith” in PCUSA has dropped, by more than 50%.

In 1987 PCUSA acknowledged its long history of Jew hatred and their complicity in crimes against the Jewish people, and sought to repent. It seems that PCUSA still has some repentance to do.

Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.,is host of the Line of Fire radio broadcast and author of Resurrection

Jonathan Feldstein is President and CEO of the Genesis 123 Foundation, Genesis123.co, and RunforZion.com

The Incredible Incoherence of Ben & Jerry’s Capitulation to the BDS Movement

The iconic, famously woke ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, announced on Monday that it will no longer sell its product in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Put another way (and to read between the lines), “We will continue to sell our ice cream to the evil oppressors in their own apartheid state..."

The Incredible Incoherence of Ben & Jerry’s Capitulation to the BDS Movement | Article | AskDrBrown

The iconic, famously woke ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, announced on Monday that it will no longer sell its product in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” As the company explained, “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).” However, they added, “Although Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement.”

Put another way (and to read between the lines), “We will continue to sell our ice cream to the evil oppressors in their own apartheid state, one that was founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing and one that exists to this day on stolen Palestinian land. But we will not sell our ice cream to these evil oppressors who live in illegal settlements in other portions of equally stolen land.”

Had I not given up eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream 7 years ago (for health reasons, along with lots of other foods I dropped), I would be losing my taste about now.

The responses to Ben & Jerry’s announcement have been as predictable as they have been telling.

From the Israeli side, the new prime minister Napthali Bennett said, “There are many ice cream brands, but only one Jewish state.”

Israelis can do without the ice cream but not without their state.

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, “Now we Israelis know which ice cream NOT to buy.”

From the anti-Israel side, the BDS movement tweeted, “Following years of #BDS campaigns @benandjerrys has announced it will end sales of its ice cream in Israel's illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.

“We warmly welcome their decision but call on Ben & Jerry's to end all operations in apartheid Israel.

In other words, “This is a good step in the right direction, but if you really want to do the right thing – and be assured we will keep pressuring you until you – you must stop doing any business with evil Israel.”

A fuller statement from the BDS movement (which stands for boycott, divestment, and sanctions) said this: “After years of pressure from activists, Ben & Jerry’s announced it will not renew its licensing agreement with its Israeli licensee, who is involved in selling the ice cream in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“The BDS movement welcomes Ben & Jerry’s decision as a decisive step towards ending the company’s complicity in Israel’s occupation and violations of Palestinian rights.

“Ben & Jerry’s, a leading socially responsible international company, is finally bringing its policy on Israel’s regime of oppression against Palestinians in line with its progressive positions on Black Lives Matter and other justice struggles. We hope Ben & Jerry’s has understood that, in harmony with its social justice commitments, there can be no business as usual with apartheid Israel.”

The Jewish people in Israel have created an apartheid state on stolen land. No business as usual with them. Not until they remove the protection barrier designed to keep out murderous terrorists. Not until they retreat to pre-1967 (= suicidal, indefensible borders). And not until they allow all Palestinian “refugees” to return to their homeland.

In other words, BDS will exist until Israel is no more, since the demands of the movement, if fully implemented, would result in the end of the Jewish state.

Why then is Ben & Jerry’s only pulling its ice cream from the “illegal settlements” rather than from the nation as a whole? Why allow those evil Israelis, those apartheid genocidal monsters, to enjoy these sumptuous treats in the luxury of their homes in West Jerusalem or their restaurants in Tel Aviv?

And if the ice cream will not be sold in the “OPT,” does that mean that the Palestinians living nearby will not be able to buy it either? Or that those of them whose jobs involve the distribution of the ice cream will be hurt economically by the boycott?

As for these last these two questions, I’m simply putting them up for discussion, since the official announcement is lacking in details. But one thing is sure: a good case can be made for the fact that the BDS movement actually hurts the Palestinians more than it helps them. (For a strong, anti-BDS statement from Palestinian activist Bassam Eid, see here.)

Of course, there are other reasons not to be impressed with Ben & Jerry’s “righteous” stand, not the least of which is the company’s contractual agreement with Unilever.

As explained on the Washington Free Beacon, “The most common expression of anti-Semitism on the left is the application of double standards to Jews and the Jewish state.

“Look no further than Ben & Jerry's partnership with Unilever, which acquired the ice cream company in 2000. There is no comparison between Israeli policy in the West Bank and the practices of the world's greatest human rights abusers. Unilever happily does business everywhere from occupied Northern Cyprus to occupied Tibet and Xinjiang, home to Uyghur concentration camps. We won't hold our breath for the ice cream boycott of China or Russia. But hey, there are no Jews in Xinjiang.”

As a lover of God and a lover of justice, I, too, want to see the fair and equal treatment of the Palestinians along with the safety and thriving of the Jewish state of Israel.

That’s why I so reject the incoherent and hypocritical policy decision of Ben & Jerry’s.

Are Jews Who Believe in Jesus Still Jews?

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, from both Jews and Christians: “If you believe in Jesus, you’re no longer Jewish. You were Jewish. You’re not Jewish anymore.” Actually, I am Jewish and I do believe in Jesus. I am, most certainly, both.

Are Jews Who Believe in Jesus Still Jews? | Article | AskDrBrown

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, from both Jews and Christians: “If you believe in Jesus, you’re no longer Jewish. You were Jewish. You’re not Jewish anymore.”

Actually, I am Jewish and I do believe in Jesus.

Christians will often quote Paul’s famous words from Galatians 3:28 to buttress their point. There Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (KJV).

Using this same logic, a man who believes in Jesus is no longer a man and a woman who believes in Jesus is no longer a woman. Or a slave who believes in Jesus is no longer a slave and a free person who believes in Jesus is no longer a free person.

In practice, that would mean no men’s meetings or women’s meetings in our churches. Or no men’s or ladies’ rooms in our church buildings. (You get the idea.)

It would also mean, going back to the days of Paul, that the moment a slave became a Christian, he could inform his master that he was no longer a slave and would be leaving post haste.

This wrong reading of Galatians 3:28 would also bring into question why Paul actually gave specific directives to men and to women, to husbands and to wives, to slaves and to masters. Why do this if these distinctions no longer existed?

Of course there are still Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free.

Paul’s point was that, in Jesus, there is no caste system and no class system, no one higher and no lower. Every believer is equally a child of God, equally forgiven and loved by the Father, equally a member of Christ’s body, equally a priest to God, equally a branch of the Vine.

That’s the incredible, liberating power of the gospel, and Paul’s words were truly revolutionary when written. They are revolutionary to this day.

It was Paul who also wrote Romans 10:12-13: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Yet Paul could refer to his own lineage (he was still an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; see 2 Corinthians 11:22; Philippians 3:5, although, to be sure, he put no confidence in the flesh). And it was James (Jacob) who shared with Paul that there were tens of thousands of fellow-Jews who now followed Jesus as Messiah (Acts 21:20). He did not call them former Jews.

So, just as I am a male follower of Jesus, I am also a Jewish follower of Jesus. And the reason I make that part of my statement of faith is because of the widespread, historic misconception that “Jews don’t believe in Jesus” or, “Jesus is not for Jews.”

As for the claim from my own Jewish people that I was Jewish but no longer am, what they really mean to say is, “You’re no longer practicing Judaism.”

That, of course, is true, and I never deny that in the least. I am not a traditional Jew and I do not practice traditional Judaism (although I do appreciate many of our traditions).

But there are millions of nominal Jews (including a healthy percentage of atheistic Jews), yet very few question whether they’re still Jewish. There are even Jewish Buddhist (called Jubus) and Jewish cult members, and they are still recognized as Jews.

Why, then, are they still Jewish, yet I am not Jewish – despite my deep connection to my people. Despite being married to a Jewish woman (who also believes in Jesus). Despite learning Hebrew after coming to faith. Despite believing in Jesus (Yeshua) as the Jewish Messiah. Despite honoring every word of the Tanakh (what Christians call the Old Testament).

To be sure, most rabbis I have interacted with over the decades recognize me as a Jew but believe I have gone astray.

But others would say, “You’re no longer Jewish because you changed religions.”

That, however, would mean that nominal Jews and atheistic Jews were no longer Jewish because they were not following traditional Judaism.

More importantly, that would deny the fact that being Jewish is both religious (practicing Judaism) and ethnic (born of a Jewish parent or parents).

Even more importantly, those who claim I’m no longer Jewish must forget that Jesus was born King of the Jews and died King of the Jews. That all of His first followers were Jews. That most (if not all) of the New Testament books were written by Jews. And that the gates of the New Jerusalem will carry the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel while its foundations will carry the name of the Twelve (Jewish!) Apostles.

You better believe that you can be Jewish and follow Jesus.

In fact, the majority of us who identify as Messianic Jews will tell you that following Jesus has made us even more Jewish.

The truth is that I am saved by grace, forgiven through the cross, redeemed by the love of God – and still Jewish. 

And there are hundreds of thousands of others just like me.

Can Jewish People Be Saved Without Believing in Jesus?

I wish that I could say, “Yes! God has made a special way for Jews to be saved without believing in Jesus.”  Isn’t there a way for them to be saved without faith in Yeshua? Of this we can be sure: God has not made a special covenant with the Jewish people that allows them to be saved without Yeshua. The testimony of the Scriptures is clear...

Can Jewish People Be Saved Without Believing in Jesus? | Article | AskDrBrown

I wish that I could say, “Yes! God has made a special way for Jews to be saved without believing in Jesus.” 

After all, my wife and I are Jewish. Our families are Jewish. Many of our friends growing up were Jewish. 

To this day, I am in close, ongoing contact with religious Jews, and we have had many in-depth discussions about the things of God. They would tell me plainly that they love God deeply but they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. 

Isn’t there a way for them to be saved without faith in Yeshua?

Certainly, each individual, Jew and Gentile, will have to stand before God on his or her own, and we cannot claim to know the fate of every human being. But of this we can be sure: God has not made a special covenant with the Jewish people that allows them to be saved without Yeshua.

 The testimony of the Scriptures is clear.

Why then do some Christians teach that Jews can be saved without believing in Jesus? For some, it is primarily a sentimental issue. That is to say—in overly simplistic terms—they go to Israel, they see Jews praying at the Wailing Wall, they recognize that the Jews are the chosen people, they read about the church’s past persecution of the Jews—in the name of Jesus no less—and they simply cannot imagine them being lost. After all, at certain times in history, it appears that the Jews have been far more righteous than the Christians! Isn’t it arrogant, then, to think that believers in Jesus are saved while these righteous Jews are lost? The unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust has also made it difficult for many Christians to believe that Jews who do not believe in Yeshua will not be saved.

Others, however, base their views on a number of scriptural arguments, most of which boil down to the claim that God gave Israel the Mosaic covenant, and Jews who adhere to that covenant remain in right standing with the Lord. This is allegedly reinforced by Paul, who taught that “those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” and that there will be “glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 2:13, 10), implying that Torah-keeping Jews will be accepted by the Lord as righteous.

These arguments, however, do not stand up to close scrutiny, and the overall message of the New Testament stands against this line of reasoning. 

Jesus told His fellow Jews that if they knew the Father, they would know Him also, and those who rejected Him rejected the Father as well (see Luke 10:16; John 5:36-47; cf. also 9:39-41). In keeping with this, John wrote that “he who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life,” and that “no one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 5:12; 2:23).

Repeatedly in the book of Acts, the Jewish apostles shared the Good News with their people, and repeatedly their message was rejected by many of their people. Did the apostles say, “Well, that’s not that big of a problem. You still have your own way to God.” No, Peter plainly stated to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12—yes, this verse was originally spoken by a Jewish man to a Jewish audience, not by a narrow-minded, fundamentalist preacher on TV). Paul too made himself clear when his people rejected the message of the Messiah: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46; this is basically how Acts ends; see Acts 28:16-31). That’s why Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart: so many of his people were not saved (see Romans 9:2), including those whom he said were “zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge” (Romans 10:2). In fact, it was for those very people that he prayed (see Romans 10:1), “Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3).

So, according to Paul, despite the religious zeal of the Jewish people, they failed to understand the gift of God’s righteousness and therefore “his heart’s desire and prayer to God for [them was] that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). Let me repeat: Even Jewish people who are zealous for God (Romans 10:2) and are pursuing a law of righteousness (9:31; 10:3) are in need of salvation through Yeshua.

As for the notion that Jewish people can be saved by observing the Mosaic covenant, Paul wrote:

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Romans 3:19-20).

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:20)

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” (Galatians 3:10-11)

That is why, to the end of his life, Paul reached out to his people: He longed to see them saved. And that is why he was willing to suffer so much persecution from his own people, coming back again and again to share the Good News (see, e.g., 2 Corinthians 11:24; Acts 21-22).

It is also important to remember that, in Jesus, God made a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:19-20; Hebrews 8:7-12), and, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). So, Israel’s way to God is through the new covenant rather than the Mosaic covenant, a point made emphatically clear with the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, a destruction that has lasted to this day.

Jesus made it clear that He was the fulfillment of the Torah and Prophets (see Matthew 5:17-19), while the disciples recognized Him to be the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke (see John 1:45; Acts 3:24-26). After His resurrection, the Lord said to His disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44), commissioning them to preach “repentance and forgiveness of sins . . . in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).

All this means that Jesus is either the Messiah of the Jewish people or the Messiah of no people; He is either the Savior of everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, or the Savior of no one.

I personally agonize over these issues, wishing at times that somehow, almost everybody could just make it in, especially my own Jewish people. But I know that all of us fall infinitely short of God’s standards and that, without His mercy displayed in the cross, there is no hope for any of us, Jew and Gentile alike. And it is significant that religious Jews who come into a life-transforming faith in Yeshua do not simply say, “I had the same relationship with God before I believed, but now I just understand things a little better.” To the contrary, their normal response is, “Now I’ve found the truth! Now I really know God! Now my sins are forgiven!” That’s what happens when we enter into the new covenant through Messiah’s blood.

How then should we view Jewish people who died without ever hearing the Gospel, especially those who were only exposed to a hypocritical, anti-Semitic “church”? We must leave their fate as individuals to God—just as we must do for all who died without hearing the Gospel—but we should not hold to the hope that somehow, they were still under the Mosaic covenant and were thereby good enough to become accepted by God. That is simply not true, as well-intended as it may be.

This much we know. Israel’s salvation matters dearly to the Lord, and to the extent that Christians share His heart for Israel and pray and intercede, to the extent that Christians better understand the Jewish roots of their faith and become more considerate in their witness, to that extent they can help bring the Good News to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to that extent they can help hasten the day in which “all Israel will be saved.”

May that day come quickly—even in our lifetimes!

I devoted much of my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, to the subject of anti-Semitism, and on several occasions I have delivered lectures on the question of why anti-Semitism exists. Out of all the hatreds in the world, anti-Semitism is unique...

Why Have Jewish People Been So Hated? | Article | AskDrBrown

Editor’s Note: Excerpted, in shortened form, from Dr. Brown’s book 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices.

Why have Jewish people been so hated and persecuted through the centuries?

I devoted much of my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, to the subject of anti-Semitism, and on several occasions I have delivered lectures on the question of why anti-Semitism exists. Out of all the hatreds in the world, anti-Semitism is unique.

At the invitation of Christian campus groups, I spoke on this topic at both Yale and Columbia universities, two of America’s most prestigious centers of learning, each time fielding questions from the listeners for better than an hour. My challenge was simple: I have a supernatural, biblical explanation for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, one which even includes the devil himself—not the most popular theory on a university campus! “Do any of you have a better answer?”

After each lecture, I listened carefully to proposal after proposal, and despite the educational background of many of those in the audience, which included students and graduates of these universities, not one proposal could fully explain the “why” of anti-Semitism. In fact, the best theory that anyone offered was that, perhaps, anti-Semitism was due to aliens! (For more on “alien anti-Semitism,” stay tuned. I’m actually going to address that shortly.) What then makes anti-Semitism such a unique hatred?

First, it is the longest hatred of all time, dating back at least 2,300 years (and even longer if the book of Esther is included). As expressed by the Catholic scholar Edward Flannery, “Antisemitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. . . . What other hatred has endured some twenty-three centuries and survived a genocide of 6,000,000 of its victims in its twenty-third century of existence only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many years of life?” Today, Anti-Semitism is at its highest levels since immediately before the Holocaust, equaling, in fact, those pre-Holocaust levels. How can this be?

These words penned twenty-five centuries ago, still ring true in the hearts of many anti-Semites today: “There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples . . whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey [international] laws; it is not in [our] best interest to tolerate them” (Esther 3:8, with slight modifications made to make this more contemporary). Why has this hatred and fear of the Jews persisted for so long?

Consider this attack on the Jewish people made in Ezra’s day, also roughly 2,500 years ago:

The king should know that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations. Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and the royal revenues will suffer. Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors. In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place of rebellion from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed. (Ezra 4:12-15)

To this day, Jerusalem remains the center of international controversy, the only capital city not recognized by the rest of the nations. Why Jerusalem? Why the Jews?

Second, anti-Semitism is the most widespread hatred of all time. It can be traced from the Greco-Roman world to Christianity (yes, Christianity, including vicious comments from some of the church’s greatest leaders); from Islam to Fascism to Communism (intense anti-Semitism links Muslim terrorists, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin!); from White Supremacists to Black Supremacists (yes, both groups bash the Jews); from university campuses to the world press; from the philosopher Voltaire to the historian Arnold Toynbee; from the composer Richard Wagner to the car designer Henry Ford; from Japan to Russia to Iran. Why the Jews?

A few years ago, a very bizarre group made a big media splash when they claimed to have produced the world’s first human clone. The group, called the Raelians, is a UFO religion, led by its founder Rael, who claims to have been enlightened by aliens. (This is the literal claim: “On the 13th of December 1973, French journalist Rael was contacted by a visitor from another planet, and asked to establish an Embassy to welcome these people back to Earth.”) After hearing the cloning report, which was universally dismissed by scientists as a cheap publicity stunt, I went to the Raelian website, purely out of curiosity. (As of this writing, the site was available in more than twenty-five languages.) To my utter amazement, the featured message from Rael was laced with anti-Jewish sentiments, including the charge that “Israel is engaged in State terrorism” and the claim that “a small handful of the millions of American Jews are holding the rest of the 250 million Americans hostage.” Even the Raelians were polluted by an anti-Semitic stream! Why this widespread hatred of the Jews?

Third, anti-Semitism is the most vicious hatred of all time, and both the incredible violence and the depth of animosity against the Jews defy rational explanation. The enormity and depravity of the Holocaust alone is testimony to the viciousness of this hatred, and yet the Holocaust is simply the worst of countless acts of Jew hatred over the centuries. This horrific crime included several nations and led to the cooperative and systematic execution of six million Jews, including 1.5 million babies and children. So depraved were the Nazis (and other Jew killers) that Jewish infants were sometimes thrown into burning pits alive in order to save a bullet, leading to the oft-quoted dictum of Rabbi Irving Greenberg: “Moreover, summon up the principle that no statement should be made [about the Holocaust] that could not be made in the presence of the burning children.” Nothing more needs to be said.

Fourth, anti-Semitism is the most irrational hatred of all time. The absurdity of the anti-Semitic libels simply defies rational explanation. When the Black Plague decimated Europe, Jews were accused of starting the plague by poisoning the wells with a mixture made of spiders, lizards and the hearts of Christians mixed together with the sacred elements of the Lord’s supper. Outraged mobs slaughtered thousands of Jews as a result of this pernicious rumor. When the Catholic Church declared in 1215 that the elements of communion literally became the body and blood of Jesus, Jews were accused of stealing and torturing communion wafers, leading to whole Jewish communities being burned at the stake. In the Muslim world today, it is still believed that every year, Jews kidnap and torture a priest (or other victim), using his blood to make Passover matzah (unleavened bread). The Muslim world also takes seriously the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forged document from the nineteenth century that claims to report the secret plans of a hidden group of Jewish leaders who are poised to take over the entire world—ultimately bringing it into subjection to the Hindu god Vishnu! (To quote from the Protocols: “Our kingdom will be an apologia of the divinity Vishnu, in whom is found its personification.”). Jews have also been blamed for the spreading of AIDS as well as for orchestrating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (several Muslim cabdrivers in New York City explained this to me with real conviction, not realizing that I was a Jew). Jews have even been accused of controlling the Catholic Church!

Article Seventeen of the Hamas Charter states: “Zionist organizations under various names and shapes, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, espionage groups and others are all nothing more than cells of subversion and saboteurs. These organizations have ample resources that enable them to play their role in societies for the purpose of achieving the Zionist targets and to deepen the concepts that would serve the enemy.” Even the Masons are controlled by the Jews!

So irrational are the lies told about the Jews that even an utter rationalist like Sigmund Freud had to say, “With regard to anti-Semitism, I don’t really want to search for explanations; I feel a strong inclination to surrender my affects in this matter and find myself confirmed in my wholly nonscientific belief that mankind on the average and taken by and large are a wretched lot.”

What then are some of the explanations offered to explain the phenomenon of anti-Semitism?

(1) “It all traces back to Christianity,” meaning that the charge that the Jews killed Jesus (see #45), thus making them guilty of deicide (killing God) has so permeated Western history and culture that “Christian” anti-Semitism provides a link between all manifestations of anti-Semitism. But this theory is seriously flawed. How do we explain pre-Christian anti-Semitism? And does Christian anti-Semitism adequately explain Islamic anti-Semitism? And what of Christian philo-Semitism, a direct result of the testimony of the very New Testament that allegedly produced worldwide anti-Semitism?

(2) “It is because there always has to be a scapegoat,” meaning that someone always has to be blamed for bad things that happen in the world. But this begs the question rather than answers it. Why are the Jews always being blamed? As George Orwell remarked, “However true the ‘scapegoat’ theory may be in general terms, it does not explain why the Jews rather than some other minority group are picked on, nor does it make clear what they are a scapegoat for.”

(3) “It is because of the Jewish religion, which makes the Jewish people different,” and so people attack what they don’t understand. The problem with this view is that secular Jews have often been singled out for persecution. In keeping with this, it has often been said that at the time of the Holocaust, most German Jews were more German than Jewish. Not only so, but the Nazis slaughtered Jews who were even “one-quarter” Jewish—meaning only one grandparent was Jewish—also murdering Jews who had converted to Christianity. There is also worldwide animosity toward the modern state of Israel, despite the fact that the nation is far more secular than it is religious. And why haven’t Muslims been universally hated for being different?

(4) “It is because the Jewish people are especially bad” (this was actually stated to me by a Pakistani cabdriver with whom I discussed the question of anti-Semitism)—but this theory hardly needs refutation, since Jews are often some of the most moral and ethical people in the world, and, to be sure, there are plenty of rotten Gentiles! So, to put it mildly, Jews certainly don’t have a monopoly on being bad.

(5) “It is because the Jews always have all the money”—which, in fact, is not a theory but rather another anti-Semitic libel! In any case, through the centuries, Jews have often been the poorest people in their societies, often because of oppressive laws passed against them. But they were hated and persecuted nonetheless.

(6) “It is because of Jewish guilt, leading to divine judgment”—a harsh-sounding charge, but with some truth to it, since the Torah clearly states that national obedience would be blessed while national disobedience would be cursed (see Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). But the hatred has been too intense, too vile, too destructive to be explained by this alone and even within the Tanakh itself, God often expressed His displeasure with the nations whom He used to judge His people, stating clearly that they had gone too far (see, e.g., Isaiah 10:5-19; more broadly, see Zechariah 1:14-15).

Clearly, all of these theories fall short in one way or another, failing to explain the intense, irrational and long-lived nature of anti-Semitism and failing to connect all the dots. What then is the explanation for anti-Semitism in the world? It is simply this: God has singled out the Jewish people as His instrument for world redemption, He has promised that they will always remain on the earth as a distinct people—despite their sins and failures—and the devil himself has marked them out for destruction. Ultimately, it is through the Jewish people that the knowledge of the one true God has come to the world, through the Jewish people that the Messiah has come, and through the Jewish people that the message of the Messiah went to the nations. And it is the Jewish people in Jerusalem who will ultimately welcome the Messiah back to earth to set up His kingdom (see Matthew 23:37-39). That’s why the devil hates them so!

As I wrote in Our Hands Are Stained with Blood:

Why does Satan so passionately despise the Jews? For one thing, it is a reflection of his hatred for God. The Jews are God’s chosen people! By hurting them he seeks to hurt the Lord and take revenge for his own sentence of death. His effort to annihilate the Jews is also an attempt to discredit the Lord, since He has sworn in His Word that they will never be destroyed. If Israel ceases to exist as a distinct people, then God did not, or could not, keep His promise. That would mean that He was either powerless or that He lied!

But there is another reason the devil despises the Jews: The salvation of Israel means the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the righteous, the revival of the Church and the restoration of the earth. The fulfillment of the Jews’ destiny will seal the devil’s doom. Yes, “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20) . . . and he is beginning to squirm! The time to favor Israel is upon us and Satan is quaking with fear. The countdown has begun.

Understanding, then, that anti-Semitism is ultimately a spiritual phenomenon rather than a cultural, ethnic or even religious phenomenon, we can also understand that anti-Semitism has to do with God and His purposes rather than with the Jewish people themselves. That is to say, it is not because the Jews are better or worse than anyone else; it is because God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring redemption to the world, the Messiah Himself being a Jew. In that light, it will be a bad day for anti-Semites when they realize that the all-powerful King coming in flaming fire is a glorified Jew.