Taking a Stand Against Antisemitism
‘Kill all the Jews,’ is not just a chant that was once heard at universities in Nazi Germany but the very shouts Jewish students hear at Columbia University, the Ivy League school in New York City. American Jewish students, born in the United States, are being verbally assaulted with calls to “Go back to Poland” where the Nazis murdered 3 million Jewish people during the Holocaust. Protesters are also calling for “10,000 October 7th,” referring to the murderous rampage of Hamas, that brutally killed 1,200 Israelis and took 240 Israelis hostage. The ostensible anti-Israel protests defending the genocidal terrorist group Hamas has unleashed an explosion of vicious Anti-Jewish hate that has spread to University campuses across the United States. The Antisemitic threats have turned the Columbia campus into a Judenrein zone, the Nazi word used for their determination to remove all Jews from Germany. Columbia administrators have directed Jewish students to stay in their dorms or go home and finish their classes with remote learning.
What is most surprising to me, since I teach and serve in the evangelical Christian sub-culture, is that most Christians don’t recognize that this should have any effect on them. It’s certainly not that they endorse this hatred, but many do question whether it should matter to them in any special way. Why should Gentile Jesus followers care deeply and act boldly to protect the Jewish people in our midst?
One reason we need to care about Antisemitism is that all followers of Jesus have Jewish roots. In Romans 11, Paul uses an illustration of an Olive Tree, a picture of the New Covenant, that Gentile believers are grafted into. He writes that if the root of this tree “is holy, so are the branches” (Rom 11:16). The root refers to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The point is that Gentile Christians are branches grafted into a tree which has Jewish roots. We need to care about Antisemitism because we stand on Jewish promises made to Jewish patriarchs.
But that’s not the only reason. We also need to care about the hatred of the Jewish people because we have a Jewish redeemer, the Lord Jesus the Messiah. In Romans 9:4-5 Paul lists many of the blessings God has given the Jewish people and a special one is that “from them, by physical descent came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever.” The Messiah who died for our sins and was raised again and who forgave us, is Jewish. Despite the media and a US Congresswoman recently declaring that Jesus was a Palestinian, nothing could be further from the truth. Our Lord Jesus, whom we love and serve, is Jewish. We not only stand on Jewish promises but we have a Jewish savior.
Paul calls the Lord Jesus a “descendant of David” in both Romans 1:3 and 2 Timothy 2:8. His point is that Jesus is the royal heir to the Davidic Covenant. The Messiah Jesus isn’t just our redeemer—He’s our King. If the Lord Jesus were not the true King of Israel, then He would not be the King of the World. Therefore, we must care for the ethnic family of our king.
A final motivation to stand with the Jewish community against Antisemitism is that one day we will stand before a Jewish judge, the Lord Jesus Himself. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 Paul reminds us that we will all stand before the Bema seat of Messiah, when He will judge our works. Not only that, the Lord Jesus Himself said that He would judge the Gentile nations at the end of the Tribulation (Matt 25:31-46). The basis of His judgment would be how the nations treated the Jewish people during the Tribulation, that terrible time of Antisemitism in the future. The Lord receives some into the Kingdom because their actions reflected their genuine faith. He says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me” (Matt 25:41). Although this verse is applied in many different contexts, its primary meaning is that “these brothers” refer to the Jewish people.
Too often Gentile Christians think Antisemitism is bad but it’s not really any of their business. Let’s remember the words of Charles Spurgeon: “A Christian is the last person who ought to ever speak disrespectfully or unkindly of the Jews.” But it’s not Spurgeon alone that should guide us. The Scriptures remind us that we need to resist Antisemitism. It is not just someone else’s problem— our roots, our Redeemer, and our Ruler should cause Antisemitism to be one of our core concerns.