Are Christians responsible for the hatred of Jews today?

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As you state, although Jesus had overwhelming credentials proving that he was the Messiah, the vast majority of the first-century Jews did not acclaim him. Why? Because they had their own preconceived ideas about the Messiah, including that he would be a political messiah who would liberate them from Roman oppression. John 12:34 reads 'Therefore the crowd answered him: “We heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever; and how is it you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?"' Thus, they could not accept the Messiah who fulfilled the prophecies that said he would be despised, avoided by men, meant for pains and for having acquaintance with sickness, and finally killed. (Isaiah 53:3, 5) Even some of Jesus’ loyal disciples were disappointed that he did not provide political deliverance. But they remained loyal, and in time, accurate understanding was given them.—Luke 24:21.

Another reason why people rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah was his teachings, which many found hard to accept. Entry into the Kingdom would require ‘disowning oneself,’ ‘eating’ Jesus’ flesh and blood, being “born again,” and being “no part of the world.” (Mark 8:34; John 3:3; 6:53; 17:14, 16) The proud, the rich, and the hypocritical viewed these requirements as too difficult to fulfill. However, humble Jews accepted Jesus as the Messiah, as did some Samaritans who said: “This man is for a certainty the savior of the world.”— John 4:25, 26, 41, 42; 7:31.

Jesus foretold that he would be condemned by the chief priests and be impaled by Gentiles, but on the third day, he would rise. (Matthew 20:17-19) His affirmation before the Sanhedrin that he was “the Christ the Son of God” was judged to be blasphemy. (Matthew 26:63-66) Pilate found in him “nothing deserving of death,” but because the Jews charged him also with sedition, Pilate “surrendered Jesus to their will.” (Luke 23:13-15, 25) They thus “disowned” and contrived to kill “the Chief Agent of life,” despite the overwhelming proof that he was sent by God. (Acts 3:13-15) The Messiah was “cut off” as foretold, being impaled on a stake on Passover Day of 33 C.E. (Daniel 9:26, 27; Acts 2:22, 23) After his death even the Romans were moved to acknowledge Jesus as the son of God though they had no idea who he really was. (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47)

The Jews in the holy land were worse off after Jesus than before which evidence that Jesus was NOT the promised Moisheach. As to Jews in faraway places they did not know about Jesus at the time so they would have had an opinion on the matter.

On purely empirical grounds, we can safely assert that Jesus was NOT the Moisheach. If Jesus were, how does one account for the pogroms and the holocaust? As Messiahs go, Jesus gets C- or a D.

ruveyn

Simple, you hear bad things about jews, you believe those bad things about jews, you meet me, you learn I'm a jew, you assume I possess those negative qualities you have heard jews possess, and you hate me regardless of the person I actually am, because after all, you believe there must be a valid reason in there somewhere to hate me based on the fact I'm a jew.

It just seems weird that one group would have such a vast history of being hated. Is it just because victimization is also a part of the Jewish culture so they emphasize it more than anyone else?

Also, I assume your 'you' is a general 'you' because I really don't care what anyone is other than if it directly affects how they act and treat me.

It's just a very strange history that always intrigues me but I never get a straight answer on. It's not like Jewish people are particularly identifiable from other Semitic people and look similar to Mediterranean people, in general. Yet for some reason, there's a much larger history of victimhood for the Jewish culture than others....it's an oddity, to say the least. Especially given that much of Jewish culture is so enjoyable and respectable...even the religion aspect itself is more a conversation than simple a dictation which is respectable.

I once entered into a conversation with a neo nazi...

Me: What is a jew?
Him:Anyone with jewish blood.
Me: What's jewish blood?
Him: The blood of a jew.

You see this went no where fast. Most of them have as much of a solid concept of what a jew is as hippies do of what energy is. Vague and self serving.

I wonder if you read my entire comments or are you replying to one or two sentences? It would help to know if you are taking words out of context.

You're missing the point, and again I'll stress this: the Jewish nation was looking for the wrong Messiah. What they wanted was a political messiah who would liberate them from Roman oppression. Jesus had overwhelming credentials proving that he was the Messiah and yet he was rejected. The Jewish nation has regrettably suffered from many pogroms throughout history. But, as I wrote in a earlier post, nothing in the “New Testament” claims that future generations of Jews would bear special guilt for the death of Jesus. On the contrary, because of his love for their forefather Abraham, God showed the Jews special consideration, offering them the first opportunity to become Christians. (Acts 3:25, 26; 13:46; Romans 1:16; 11:28) As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:12 “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek.” Jews had the same status before God as non-Jews, and that is still true today. — Compare Ezekiel 18:20. They also have the same opportunity to gain salvation through Jesus Christ's ransom sacrifice.

To put your mind at ease know that false Christians will answer to God for their anti-Semitism. In Romans 12:19 it reads 'Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but yield place to the wrath; for it is written: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says Jehovah."' (compare Deuteronomy 32:35; Psalm 99:8; Nahum 1:2) Needless to say the churches of Christendom are blood guilty for their centuries of bloodshed in the name of Christ and their support to bloodthirsty figures like Hitler and his Nazi politics. They will pay the blood debt they owe God.

People seem to forget that there were others who suffered in the holocaust and other pogroms. For example my brothers and sisters in concentration camps were identified with purple stars. Many Jehovah's Witnesses were natural born Aryans, and their freedom only meant signing a paper to denounce their beliefs. Yet they continued to reject Hitler and his Nazi war machine to the point of death. Jesus' command to be "no part of this world" was taken to their heart. (John 18:36; John 15:17-21) They also knew they would be persecuted because Christ was also persecuted for preaching the good news. (Deuteronomy 30:7; Psalm 119:86, 161; Matthew 5:10; Luke 21:12; John 15:20; Acts 7:52) How could my German Christian brothers take up arms against another simply because his Christian brother happened to be from the United States or the U.K.? Love would compel a brother not to do this. In the first century my Christian brothers and sisters underwent much pogrom. In The Annals, Book XV, on paragraph 44 Roman historian Tacitus writes that "Emperor Nero ... inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. . . . Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” And yet, as he adds ”they did not waver!" I would think Jews would commend Witnesses for what they did.

As the fruit of a tree identifies it, so the results of human actions identify what kind of people are producing them. Jesus Christ pointed this out when he said: “A good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.”—Matthew 7:18, 20.

Jesus founded true Christianity as a good tree. It could not, therefore, produce the bad fruits of fanaticism. At no time did Jesus urge his followers to do physical harm to themselves or to others. Instead, in quoting one of the two great commandments, he said: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39) His followers were to be kind even to their enemies. Said Jesus: “Continue to love your enemies, to do good to those hating you, to bless those cursing you, to pray for those who are insulting you.”—Luke 6:27, 28. Jesus even ask his Father to forgive the Romans for putting him to death. (Luke 23:34) Paul writes in Romans 12:17 "Return evil for evil to no one." and in verse 20 and 21 writes '"if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap fiery coals upon his head." Do not let yourself be conquered by the evil, but keep conquering the evil with the good.'

Jesus’ true followers went out among people of many different nations, not with fire and sword, but with God’s written Word and peaceful persuasion. No military armies accompanied them to other lands in order to slaughter, torture, and rape those who rejected Christian baptism. Instead, Jesus’ disciples followed his peaceful example of preaching the good news of God’s Kingdom to all, encouraging them to reason on information presented from the Scriptures. The fruits of their work included the fruitage of God’s spirit—“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.”—Galatians 5:22, 23.

In order to throw the switch of prejudice, hatred, and murder in people’s hearts and minds, Satan has inculcated the nations with notions of national, tribal, and religious superiority. (1 John 5:19) This deep-seated education in hatred is implanted from infancy by parents whose minds are locked into it, often by centuries of tradition. This tradition is then fortified by school systems and religious teachings. Thus millions of people are raised with hatred and prejudice in their hearts. They are conditioned, brainwashed from infancy, to turn against their fellowman at the behest of unscrupulous political and religious demagogues, like Hitler and Osama bin Laden. The spewing of irrational slogans and sound bites can throw a switch, can light a wildfire, that terminates in a pogrom.

None of it is the fault of God. It is certainly not the fault of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. In other words Ruveyn you are not responsible for Jesus' death. Your ancestors paid that price back when Rome destroy Jerusalem in 70 C.E. This is coming from a Christian like me. I hope this puts your mind at ease.

Last edited by kxmode on 24 Jan 2011, 5:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Thankfully, I'm not talking with any neo-nazis, other than Inuyasha and even then I mostly ignore him and try to put minimal effort into my responses to him.

Both of you read my last reply to ruveyn. It might be eye-opening to know that true Christians do not hold modern Jews responsible for Jesus' death. Go ahead... read it.

Don't really care. Just asking questions. With a literal interpretation of the bible, Christians shouldn't hold Jews responsible because it's beyond the 3rd generation or whatever that whole archaic law is or the sons aren't responsible for the sins of the father. Most of the people who hate Jews are just morons and use that just like any school yard bully would use any piece of illogic that makes sense in their peon brains.

Well, I just thought it might be informative, but since you don't really care I won't bother you...

But Jesus wasn't the Messiah for just the Jews. He was the savior for anyone who recognized him as such - Jew or Gentile. As Paul said, there was no longer any difference between Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Barbarians, Romans and Scythians (collectively my people living in north Europe outside Roman rule - not just the Indo-Iranian steppe people), man and woman, slave and free. Christianity believes salvation is for everyone, not just one little Middle Eastern tribe.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I'm not one who believes that most modern Christians hold modern jews responsible for the death of Jesus.

And you would be right. Anyone familiar with Christian theology knows that Christ had to die to redeem mankind, and that it was the sins of all people - not just Jews- that put Christ on the cross. So, the whole notion that Jews should be punished for in anyway killing Jesus is absurd. Those cretins who accuse Jews of Christ's death today are just grasping for a reason to hate.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Its also blasphemy to Biblical Christians as well, its putting the Messiah in the position of Satan, wanting to be God himself.
Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus ever claim to be God or even equal to God, he is Gods sacrificail son, the same as was prefiguered by Abraham offering up his son Isaac for God.

The New Testament is fully in harmony with the Old Testament concerning the Messiah, its only the trinitarian doctrines of men that make that blasphemous claim that Jesus is God, that why when Jesus returns he said he would say to most of his "followers", get away from me you workers of Lawlessness, I never knew you.

Somewhere in the Gospels there is a verse that has Jesus saying: "I and my Father are One".

By the way do you recall what happened with Isaac. God sent an angel to stop Isaac from cutting his son's throat. later on God tells Abraham "Relax -- I was just f*cking with you"

ruveyn

Every group has a history of being hated by others. What you are thinking of is persecution, which results from a combination of hatred and the power to act on it.

There was just as much hate between Christians and Muslims, and Catholics and Protestants, as between Christians and Jews, but only the Jews were perpetual minorities unable to defend themselves. When Catholics expelled Protestants from their lands, they would flee to majority Protestant countries where they could be protected. When Christians persecuted Muslims, they could always escape to Muslim ruled lands where they would be treated better. But when Jews were persecuted there was no Jewish majority country to take them in.

Humans have a long history of hatred, with rulers often fanning the flames for political reasons. Remember that before the separation of church and state, anyone who didn't follow the state religion was effectively a political dissident (and some right wingers still think that way). "Jews killed Jesus!" was just the old fashioned version of "Muslims attacked our freedom!"


Yes, it's interesting that when I wander back to these boards out of nostalgia, there is at least one member who has fallen for racist lies and is spreading them.


I don't need to be part of any organization to fight racist lies, I am quite capable of seeing through them myself.

Last edited by DrizzleMan on 25 Jan 2011, 2:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.