Allen Jackson - How Far Is Too Far? - Part 2
Genesis 12, I’ve told you on many occasions that the opening chapters of Genesis establish the big rock ideas of the Bible, the ideas that are fleshed out in the 65 books that follow that. And in Genesis 12, God is speaking to Abram, and he said, «I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I’ll make your name great, and you’ll be a blessing, and I’ll bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I’ll curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you». That promise isn’t made to everybody, it’s made to Abram. You and I receive blessings from Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, today because of the covenant that God made with Abram in the book of Genesis. I can show that to you scripturally.
In John chapter 4 and verse 22, Jesus is speaking. I’m gonna touch these really quickly. You can reflect on them at your leisure, but Jesus is speaking. And he said, «The Samaritans worship what you do not know; but we,» the Jews, «worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews». Jesus’s words. No Jews, no salvation. Every spiritual blessing, my entire spiritual inheritance, I owe to one people: the Jewish people. Ephesians 3 and verse 6 says: «The mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles,» Gentiles is the word in the New Testament for everybody who’s not Jewish. There’s two groups of people in the New Testament: the Jews and the Gentiles; the Jews and everybody else.
«The mystery is that through the gospel,» the good news about Jesus, «the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus». Not something separate, not something apart from. I’ll show you a bit more in a moment. Look in Galatians 3 and verse 29: «If you belong to Christ, then you’re Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise». To what promise? To the promise God made to Abraham.
See, there’s an arrogance in the Christian church. It’s predominantly non-Jewish. We’re highly critical of the Jewish people. We’ve been very condemning. I’ll show you a bit of history in a moment. And it’s because we haven’t understood the scripture. It’s been far more about our carnality and our pride and our arrogance. We’ve been far more proud of our denominational affiliation, and our denominational heroes and our favorite songwriters or hymn writers or worship leaders or whomever. We’ve been very quick to condemn the Jewish people. There’s a significant school of thought that said the Jewish people were eliminated from the purposes of God. It isn’t biblical.
Look at Romans chapter 9. Paul is writing. Paul is a Pharisee, a Jew. He said, «I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen».
There’s some conclusions you can reach from that passage. God adopted the Jewish people as a nation. That’s his word, not ours. The divine glory, the manifest supernatural presence of God, was with Israel as long as they walked in obedience to God. The covenants, all the biblical covenants, are with Israel, except for those that were made before Israel was a nation. The covenant God made with Abraham predates the nation of Israel. You can’t talk about a Jewish people when we’re reading the book of Genesis. But all of those covenants come through either before the existence of Israel or the people of Israel. They’re receiving the law. The law was given to Israel.
We know the character of God because of his interaction with the Jewish people. The temple worship, the priestly service of God, was given to Israel. The human ancestry of Christ, Paul said, through the Jewish people, through Israel, that Jesus Christ, our Messiah, came to the world. His arrival was not through any other people than the Jews. And then Christians will say, «Well, do you think we have any obligation»? Yes, I do. Doesn’t mean everything they do is right. Doesn’t mean everything they do we should support. But it does mean that we are indebted to them.
There’s a very significant school of thought that occupies a place in much of contemporary Christendom in our nation and beyond, but it flourishes in our nation: replacement theology, that God replaced the Jewish people and everywhere you read «Israel» in the Bible, you could just pencil in «church». And then when we read something about the Jewish people, you can write in «Christians». My understanding of Jesus: he said, «If you mess with one jot or tittle,» the least stroke of a pen, «judgment will come on you». So I would strongly encourage you away from that school of thought. I don’t believe it’s accurate. I understand a bit how it made its way into history. I think I understand even some of the forces that are behind it.
In Acts chapter 18, in the book of Acts, we’re told that there was a Roman emperor, that’s not in your notes. They’re searching their page. Acts 18 is in your Bible, it’s right between 17 and 19. You can check me later. The first two verses, Luke is writing, and he said that the Emperor Claudia expelled the Jews from Rome. And some of those who were expelled from Rome, there was a natural disaster in Rome and they needed a scapegoat. Not surprisingly, the Jews were chosen as a scapegoat, so they were all driven out of Rome. Rome’s economy diminished greatly. And a succeeding emperor invited them back. It happened to be Nero, who was crazy as a loon, an evil man. He ruled from ages 16 to 30. He came to power in 54 AD. He invited the Jews back.
Well, the church by that point was already established in the city of Rome. It was the leading center of the empire. There was a vibrant church there. Not surprisingly, the church had begun in the synagogues, the leadership in the church was Jewish. So when the Jews were expelled from Rome, there was a power vacuum. They needed new pastors and leaders and so they replaced them with people who weren’t Jews because that’s all that was available. Guess what happened when the Jews came back? They didn’t want them. They had moved into the corner office. They’d written their name into the org chart. Did you know that’s all in your Bible? I brought you a little sample. It’s in Romans chapter 11. It’s part of what Paul is writing to the believers in Rome about, because what the non-Jews are saying is that the Jews messed up and they lost their place.
So in Romans 11, verse 1, Paul writes: «I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I’m an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew». That’s about as plain as it can be. God didn’t reject them. So if somebody says to you, «God rejected the Jewish people,» you know one of two things. They’re biblically ignorant. Or they don’t read well. And don’t pay any attention. I’m gonna go with the apostle Paul. He made the book.
Same chapter, verse 11, he said, «Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery»? He’s not making this up. By the middle of the 1st century, this was the accusation being leveled at the Jewish people by Christ followers. They’ve stumbled so badly, they messed up so badly, they’re beyond redemption, they missed their opportunity. They deserve what they get. «I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious». Same chapter, verse 17: «If some of the branches,» Paul’s using the analogy that Israel, the Jewish people, are an olive tree. And he says, «If some of the branches are broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches».
Do you understand the analogy? He said there was a tree, an original tree, Israel, the Jewish people, and some branches were broken off and people who weren’t a part of the original tree were grafted in. But you’re sustained by the roots of that original tree. Don’t boast over the branches. If you do, consider this, you don’t support the root, the root supports you. «And you’ll say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.' Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Don’t be arrogant, be afraid. For if God didn’t spare the natural branches, he won’t spare you either». All of us are required to lead our lives by faith. And we shouldn’t imagine that the Jewish people have been rejected. We should understand God is moving in their midst.
Again, I think we need a biblically informed attitude towards the Jewish people. You need a bit of history here. I’m not Tim Barton. My drawl makes that unlikely. But I can tell you this, the Jewish people across a large span of history, predating the church, but I’ll focus on the church, our time is limited. The Jewish people have been hunted, hated, and unwanted. Hard stop. Across empires, across nations, across continents, across hundreds, across thousands of years, the Jewish people have been hunted, hated, and unwanted. But I’ll show you in a moment how God keeps his promises. And I believe we’re watching that unfold in our news media these days. For 2,000 years, the primary incubator of hatred of the Jewish people have been the Christians.
Fact of history. It’s not really debatable. I don’t have time to do it in a great deal of detail. I can give you the highlights. I just read you a portion. It was an issue in the first century while our Bible was being put together. It made it into the most masterful theological treatise that I believe humanity has ever had, the book of Romans. And it had to be addressed in the Church of Rome. And it required no one of less significance than the apostle Paul to address it. I wish I could say it stopped there, it didn’t. I could take you to about just any following civilization that unfolded, and there is a very pronounced, very intentional, very violent hatred of the Jewish people unleashed and typically supported by the most influential voices in the Christian community.
In Europe, in Spain, well, there’s many, many examples. I’m just giving you a limited, in Spain, the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century. By that time Spain’s a Catholic country. But there’s political turmoil and upheaval and the Jews are gonna be scapegoated again and the Jews are arrested, their properties confiscated. Many of them have been successful, many have flourished, so their property, their wealth, is confiscated. They’re given options. They can convert to Christianity, they can be executed, or they can leave the country and we will keep your things. Thousands of Jews arrested, many driven out of the country, not unique. Just the Spanish version. The Roman Catholic Church, and I’m not anti-Roman Catholic.
Listen to the podcast. But the Roman Catholic Church until the 1970s, their public attitude was that the Jewish people were guilty of deicide. They killed the Messiah. They’ve changed that. But for hundreds of years, official policy. Gee, do you think that could incubate hatred? How do you arrive at Christian Europe, that would surrender the Jewish population in all of their leading cities to be rounded up, shipped off to death camps, and Christian Europe would barely lift a finger? How could that happen? Because for hundreds of years there was a malevolent hatred directed at the Jewish people. It’s in Shakespeare’s writings. It’s in the literature.
In many of the nations, they weren’t allowed to own property. So they couldn’t farm, so they had small businesses. They were money changers. They had jobs they were allowed to have. They were broadly discriminated against. I don’t believe it’s accidental and it’s more than a bit ironic that modern-day Israel leads the world in most agricultural breakthroughs: irrigation, dairy production, milk production, the finest fruits and vegetables in the markets of Europe come from the greenhouses of Israel. The people who were not allowed to own property and farm throughout Europe are now feeding the most elite of Europe. God has a sense of humor, and a sense of justice.
You see, the Holocaust in World War II is the part we’re probably the most familiar with, was only made possible because of the silence of the Christian church. We’re ignorant of our history or it’s inconvenient for us to be reminded of it, so we don’t think about it. The Nazi war criminals that escaped at the end of World War II, many of whom did so with the help and the engagement of the Catholic Church. And again, I’m not trying to trash… Protestant Europe did no better. What we see is this lengthy period of time, more than 2000 years, of hatred and violence directed against a small group of people across varying empires, different economic systems, different political powers, different political structures, but the hatred of the people is consistent. And if you’ll allow me to expand it just a bit more, the pages of your Bible illustrate it, we just don’t think about it.
In the book of Exodus, the male children of the Hebrew slaves are being murdered because they’re perceived as a threat. It’s illogical. It’s irrational. You have a group of people enslaved. You want the strength of the males in the population, but they’re being murdered. Moses is saved out of that. Scroll forward more than 1000 years until we get to the day of Jesus and Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem. When Jesus is born, what happens? All the male children are slaughtered in Bethlehem. It begins to become so consistent and so repetitive. In the Holocaust, in the death camps of Europe, more than 1 ½ million Jewish children were murdered, 1 ½ million.
I’ve read report after report where the train cars transporting the Jews like cattle would rumble past churches and if it…on a Sunday when the church was gathered and the people in the cars are crying for help. The people would sing more loudly so they couldn’t hear the cries of the people. How do you explain thousands of years and hatred towards a specific group of people who didn’t even occupy a nation, they didn’t occupy a space? I don’t believe you can understand it apart from spiritual explanations. I believe it’s a spiritual force.
I believe antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, is fueled by the spirit of Antichrist. So it captures my attention when I start to hear powerful voices and people with big blocks of influence saying we shouldn’t support them when they’re being threatened with annihilation by an enemy. Really? «We don’t want to get drug into another useless war». It isn’t quite the same. I don’t think they should have carte blanche. I don’t think we should surrender our independence, that we shouldn’t use our thought, but I do believe we have a responsibility. And I believe we have to grapple with the awkward reality that we’ve ignored our responsibilities for so long.
You know, the most awkward part perhaps of the hatred of the Jewish people comes in the chapters immediately after World War II, when the camps were discovered. Eisenhower took in film crews. He said, «Nobody will believe this. It’ll be denied in a few short years. We’ve got to capture this. We have to make a historical record». I attended a Christian university for my undergraduate work. I went to Oral Roberts University. At the time, it was a very well-respected academic institution. I earned a degree in history there. One of my history professors said that the Holocaust did not happen. He said, «Oh, sure, there were a few thousand Jews that were killed. But there were millions of deaths in the war. The rest of it,» he said, «is completely manufactured».
This isn’t new. It’s not something unusual, but after World War II when the camps had been exposed and the Jewish people had been set free, what do you suppose happened? The majority of Europe did not want the surviving Jews back. They’d confiscated their homes, they’d liquidated their bank accounts, they’d appropriated their art, their places had been filled. Sounds a lot like the book of Romans. They didn’t want them back. They didn’t want to be reminded of their silence. They didn’t want to deal with the awkwardness of it. They were gonna live through their sin. They weren’t gonna repent of it. There are some shining examples that were different.
Many of you know the story of Corrie ten Boom and «The Hiding Place». Some of you have seen the movie of «Schindler’s List» and you know the story of Oskar Schindler. If you visit Israel today, in Jerusalem there’s a Holocaust museum, and the perimeter of the museum has trees that have been planted. Each of them has a name attached to it representing the righteous of the Gentiles, the righteous from among the nations, the non-Jews who stood up for the Jews, and I’ve been there with thousands of people, and I’ve heard my Israeli friends say so many times, they would look at the groups I’m with and say, «Why are there so few trees»?
The year that Corrie ten Boom died, her tree died. When the Jews were released from the camps, they were still hunted, hated, and unwanted. There’s a chapter of that that we don’t know a great deal about. They had nowhere to go. And there wasn’t clear direction. All of Europe was in disarray. The world was trying to sort out what we were going to do next. The leaders of the surviving powers were dividing up the world. And so the Jews decided they would try to reestablish themselves in their historic homeland of Israel. By that time, it was a region of the world. It wasn’t really designated into countries.
The region of the world was known as Palestine. There was no central government of Palestine. There was no president of Palestine. I’ll talk about that a bit. Time’s not going to allow. But they began, they would find anything that would float and try to go back to Israel. The most famous of the ships was «The Exodus». It was renamed. It’s inspired, some of you may know the author, Leon Uris. It inspired the best-selling book by that same title and a movie that came from it. I found a picture. I didn’t. Somebody that helps me found a picture. It’s not exactly a luxury cruise liner. It’d been condemned as a boat, but it was something they found that could float.
And they filled it with hundreds of people and they made their way to the shores of modern-day Israel under the authority of the British government, the British mandate, and the British wouldn’t let them disembark. And there were no nations in the world that wanted them. There were no nations in Europe that wanted them. So they sailed back towards Europe and they sat on the boat for days. And finally they were forced off the boat and they were put in an internment camp. Think of it. Their families were rounded up. Their property was confiscated, their wealth was stolen. The majority of their families were murdered in death camps. After the war they were released. They weren’t welcomed back into the cities from which they’d been collected. They tried to go to modern-day Israel, they weren’t allowed to land there and they find themselves in an internment camp. Hated, hunted, and unwanted.
Today, we looked at the map a moment ago, there’s about 7 million Jews in the sea of hundreds of millions of people who are sworn to their destruction. They occupy a tiny little strip of land, hardly worth noticing on a global map. The wealth of Iran is immense. The petroleum wealth of Iran has funded Hezbollah, and the wealth and the resources needed to threaten Israel with terrorists for decades, to fund Hamas and the terrorists who decimated those communities along Gaza. All the while doing everything in their power to create the ability to create a nuclear weapon, saying they would use it on the free world as soon as they could. And the nations of the world said, «Let’s talk about it».