Derek Prince - The Church Was The Main Source Of Anti-Semitism
This excerpt is from: How Should We Prepare For His Appearing?
Let’s look at the second of these two related requirements. And that is what God has planned for Israel. We’ll look in Romans 11 for a moment. Just two verses, verses 25–26. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant unto this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. Now what is the mystery? That hardening, or blindness in part, has happened to Israel, until… You notice every time it talks about God’s rejection of Israel, it always states two things: it’s partial and it’s temporary. It’s in part and until. Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until what? The full number of the Gentiles has come in. How will the full number of the Gentiles be brought in? What is absolutely essential? The proclaiming of the kingdom gospel to all nations.
You see, in Revelation we see more than once the picture of the redeemed. And one of the things that Revelation emphasizes is they're from every tribe and nation and people and tongue. So, the redeemed cannot be completed until every tribe and nation and tongue has heard the good news. That’s why I am personally an ardent supporter of the Wycliffe Bible translation. Because I believe that’s an essential part of bringing the Lord back is to get at least part of God’s Word into every spoken language.
It’s not dramatic, it doesn’t make the headlines. But it’s essential. I believe, because Jesus gave that supreme sacrifice for all nations and all people everywhere, that to honor the Lord, God the Father is going to make sure that there’s at least one from every tribe, people, nation and tongue, that has benefited from the sacrifice. That He has not died in vain for any group on the earth. So, here we’re faced with the fact blindness in part has happened to Israel, until what? The Church does its job. You see, one of our responsibilities is we're keeping Israel in unbelief. Because they cannot be restored fully to God until the full number of the gentiles has come in. Read the next verse. Until the full number of the gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. So those are the two priorities, as I understand, in God’s program for the close of the age. And they’re closely related. Number one, the proclaiming of the kingdom gospel to all the nations. Number two, the restoration of Israel.
I was talking to a very intelligent, Jewish lady, who is not a born again Christian. But her husband, who is a gentile, is a born again Christian. And they came and asked to talk to me about this issue. And I explained to them briefly what I’ve been trying to communicate to you. And I said, It’s our grievous responsibility that the Jewish people are not yet restored, because we haven’t done our job. Because until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, at least part of Israel will remain in unbelief. This rather sophisticated lady, being Jewish, looked at me and she said: Well, I guess we’re at the end of the line. Then she said: I wish you’d get on with the job. It was a remarkable challenge, really. She had seen so much. In a way, she was more perceptive than many gentile Christians. But, the blindness had not been removed, you see? In a sense, that's is a mystery. Paul calls it a mystery.
You see, initially the offer of the kingdom was made only to Israel. Jesus said: I’m not sent to any but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But, when Israel rejected the king, they forfeited the kingdom. After that, God ordained that the offer of the kingdom was to be made to all nations. And because that’s God’s program, it’s not going to change. So the age cannot close until the program of God is complete by the offer of the kingdom to all nations. I hope you see that. I hope I have communicated it to you. I know that for most of you that’s totally unfamiliar. It has become so real to me that it’s what I sleep and eat and drink. That’s my life motive. Two things: proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations. And working for the reconciliation of Israel.
In just a moment I’m going to close this message tonight by telling you what Ruth and I are doing. Not because we want to boast, but because we want you to see that we take this thing seriously. I want to turn just for a moment to Isaiah 40, which is closely related to this. Isaiah 40, we begin with verses 1 and 2. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God. Now who are my people in that context? I’ll tell you what I believe; I believe it’s the Jewish people. I have many reasons, which I don’t have time to give you. If it’s the Jewish people who are to be comforted, to whom are those words addressed? It can’t be the Jewish people. Because it’s the Jewish people who are to be comforted. So when God says, comfort ye, it’s plural, comfort ye my people. To whom are those words addressed? Us, I think there’s no other possibility. Us who believe in the God of the Bible. Who believe in the Bible and who believe that what the Bible says is what we ought to do.
So that’s an assignment for Christians. Comfort ye my Jewish people. How many of you would agree that the Jewish people need comfort? No other nation in history has suffered 1/10 of what they have suffered. And please understand, I’m not accusing anybody here, but most of their suffering has been at the hands of professing Christians. You must bear that in mind. You don’t understand the world situation, unless you understand that. The main source of anti-Semitism in Europe for at least 1,000 years was the church. Well, you say that’s not our church. True enough, maybe. But as far as I understand, there is only one Church. Jesus is not a bigamist; He’s not coming back for two brides. So, we must be part of the Church. You see, we can’t just accept the good that the Church has done and say: Well, that we accept, but the bad we disown. That doesn’t work. We are answerable in history for what the Christian Church has done.
Hitler would never have been able to do in one generation what he did to destroy the Jews, if the seed had not been sown in the minds of the Germans and the Poles and the Austrians and the French and many other nations, the Russians, by the Church for at least 1,000 years. By the way, I express it as this: The Church sowed the harvest, the nazi's reaped it. That may shock some of you. I you want to, you can check on what I say in my book: The Last Word in the Middle-East. Where I think I produced sufficient, documented evidence of that fact. And don’t say it was only the Catholics, please. Because, there was no one more strongly anti-Semitic than Martin Luther. His statements about the Jewish people are so vulgar and vile, that when I went to examine some of them, I refused to print some of them in my book. I just wouldn’t dirty the pages of my book with what Martin Luther said about the Jews. I’m an admirer of Martin Luther in many respects but this is the sad, dark page in the history of the Church.
So if we’re told to comfort the Jewish people, we've got many motives for doing it. First of all, we need to repay them for some of the harm we’ve done them. Secondly, we must bear in mind what Jesus said: salvation is from the Jews. Every spiritual blessing we enjoy as Christians, came to us through the Jewish people. And I’ll substantiate that statement. No Jews, no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles — they were all Jewish. No Bible and no Savior. How much would you have of salvation without that? These are just plain, objective, historical facts. So God is saying: Now is the time — and I believe we’re living in those days — for you to start comforting my people. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the Lord’s hand, double for all her sins. Jerusalem has been conquered at least 10 times by alien nations, since the time of Jesus. It is a downtrodden, trampled city.
Now, notice the context of this. The next verse says: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. How do we prepare the way of the Lord? By comforting the Jewish people. Do you see the context? And then I just want to show you the message of comfort. I’m speaking from experience because God has used me to present this message to Jewish people in their synagogues. And elsewhere on a number of different occasions. The message is in verses 6–8. The voice said, Cry out. And he said, What shall I cry, what is my message? This is the answer: All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord or the Spirit of the Lord, blows upon it: surely the people are grass.
Now, what comfort is there in that? None; it’s all very true but it’s not comfort. All flesh is going to perish, it’s all going to wither. It’s going to fade away. Where’s the comfort? The comfort is in the next verse. The grass withers, the flower fades: but the Word of our God stands forever. That’s one of the things we need to tell Jewish people. This Word of God stands, this Word promises you a future. This Word promises you restoration, this Word promises you blessing. It stands forever. The nations and the kingdoms and the empires that have persecuted Israel have passed from the scene of history like grass. Two things remain. The Word of God and the Jewish people to whom God has promised an eternal future. That’s the message. And if you start taking that message from the prophets to the Jewish people, you’ll discover something interesting. They are almost totally ignorant of their own prophets. I have stood up in a number of synagogues and explained out of the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament why I believe in the future of Israel. Time after time Jewish people come up to me and say: Where was that? Where did you find that? I didn’t know that was in our Bible.