Jewish Anti-Christianism

As I became more and more familiar with the role that organized Jewry played in Communism, Zionism, and liberalism, I also noticed their animosity toward Christians. Hollywood produces an abundance of movies that attack Christianity, and the publishing establishment generates prolific anti-Christian literature. For instance, in my college days I read a best-selling, highly promoted book called the Passover Plot, by a Jewish scholar named Joseph Schonfield.¹ He alleged that Jesus had not died on the cross, but was actually drugged by His followers to fake His death and resurrection. Jewish organizations routinely lead the fight to ban Christian prayers from schools, prohibit the mention of Christ in public facilities, and even forbid the singing of Christmas carols in our schools.

Once, when I criticized Jewish organizations for such actions on a radio talk show, a caller called me un-Christian for daring to criticize them. "After all," he retorted, "the Jews are God’s chosen people." I had already done enough biblical research to know that such a statement told only half of the story. For the New Testament makes it clear that believing Christians had become the "heirs of God’s promise," and that God no longer viewed the Jews as in his Covenant.²

Looking into the historical attitude of the Christian church toward Judaism, I found that it changed remarkably in this century. This was a period that also marked the rise of Jewish economic, political, and media power. The Christian church had a long record of conflict with the Jews. It is a record of which Jewish writers frequently complain. In the early fledgling days of Christianity, Jewish persecution of Christians, as referenced in the gospels, was still fresh in the minds of church leaders. A former Pharisee, Paul, was one of those cruel persecutors until his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. Eventually, Christianity became an overwhelmingly Gentile faith, and organized Jewry became its implacable enemy, claiming that Jesus was a bastard and Mary a whore, and that Christians were to be boiled in excrement. On the other side, using the New Testament, Christians blamed Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus and widespread persecution of Christians.

Many Christians think that the Jews’ only religious books are those found in the Old Testament. As I described in my chapter on Judaic Supremacism, the Talmud is a collection of the chief books of Jewish commentary. The American Heritage Dictionary describes it as ". . . constituting the basis of religious authority for traditional Judaism."

There are three main branches of the Jewish religion: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. The Orthodox is the traditional source of Judaism and is considered to be at its heart. Very similar to Orthodox Judaism is the Conservative branch, but it offers some greater leeway in observance of the stringent Jewish laws. More modernistic, the Reform movement is far less bound by Pharisaic traditions than either of the other branches. The Encyclopedia Judaica describes the current religious picture of the nation of Israel.

     There are very few Reform or Conservative congregations in the State of Israel. Orthodoxy is the official religious position in Israel with the majority of the rabbis belonging to the old school of talmudic jurists.³ ("Judaism." Encyclopedia Judaica, pg. 396)
     The tendency within the Jewish Theological Seminary [in New York] has been emphatically . . . toward a more orthodox stance than existed within it in the previous generation.⁴ ("Conservative Judaism," Enc. Encyclopedia Judaica, pg. 906)