Question 221: “Why has there always been such hatred of the Jews?
Answer: This is a question that every believer in Jesus Christ should ask himself/herself. There are volumes written on this subject and I cannot give a complete answer in a one-page reply, but I’ll touch on a few reasons why fallen and sinful people are guilty of antisemitism, hatred of the Jews.
In Genesis, Moses wrote, “Now the Lord said to Abram, (Abraham) ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1,2). God made a covenant with Abraham and promised him that he and his people would be blessed and given land if they would obey Him. Abraham’s offspring, all 70 of them ended up in Egypt and over time became enslaved by the Egyptians. After 400 years, God sent Moses to lead them to the Promised Land. As God’s chosen people, God fought for them and enabled them to eventually take possession of the land, but they were ordered by God to kill the Canaanites, Perizzites, Jebusites and many others who occupied the land. As the groups of people heard and saw how God favored them, they likely feared them, but they also may have hated them. When Jesus, the promised Messiah came as a Jew, the Jewish leaders did not recognize Him as the Messiah and ended up killing Him after Pilate declared that Jesus was innocent from his perspective and he did not want to crucify him. At that time, “All the people (the Jews) answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’” (Matthew 27:25). On the cross, Jesus said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). However, this statement by the Jews, “let his blood be on us and on our children,” has been used against them, unfortunately by some professing Christians as well as the secular world, to foster hatred for centuries.
In 570 AD, Muhammad was born and started his own religion, Islam. He did not believe that the Jews were God’s chosen people and the Jews did not believe that Muhammad was a prophet of God. As a result, there were great and still are great disagreements and conflicts between them with much hatred.
Martin Luther was one of the greatest theological minds in church history and is responsible for Christianity as we know it today when he started the Reformation. Most of Luther’s life involved him trying to win the Jews to Christ along with the rest of the world. However, late in his life he turned against the Jews because so few had become believers in Jesus. He condemned them and said some awful things about them which Hitler used to support his attempt to do the world a favor by destroying all of the Jews. Hitler also leaned heavily on a falsified document in 1903 from a Russian newspaper which quickly spread all over the world. It was called “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This document claimed a sinister plot by the Jews to rule the world. Hitler was responsible for turning the Nazi party of Germany against the Jews and killing over six million of them during World War 11. The Allied countries were appalled by Hitler’s treatment of the Jews but others countries were not so sympathetic. Hatred continued to abound.
After World War II, the United Nations gave a portion of the Palestinian territory to the Jewish people. In May of 1948, the first day of Israel’s existence as an independent state, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria attached Israel in an attempt to drive them into the sea but were defeated. For the last 75 years, continued conflicts and wars have existed between the Palestinians, who are predominately Muslim, and Israel with little hope of every having a peaceful coexistence. With two billion Muslims in the world, that makes for a lot of enemies. However, to be fair, not all Muslims hate the Jews. The good news for the Jews is that the last part of Romans 11 indicates that God may not be through with the Jews. As believers in Jesus, we should pray that, “All Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25a). There is hope!