The Patriot Post® · 4 Reasons Why Anti-Semitism Is Anti-Christian

By Joshua Arnold

A disturbing exception to our culture’s insistence on universal toleration is the hatred reserved for ethnic Jews. The October 7 attack by terror groups against the nation of Israel provoked a worldwide outpouring, not of support, but of bitter hatred. This conflagration has leapt swiftly across inter-party windbreaks. The symptoms now affect not only the hardened Left, where anti-Semitism has long lurked, but even an increasingproportion of American conservatism, especially among younger generations.

Most shockingly of all, anti-Semitic ideas are now even infiltrating the church. But anti-Semitic ideas are not biblical. In fact, anti-Semitism is anti-Christian to the extent that it denies God’s purposes working in history and excepts the Jewish people from the Christian duty to love all people and bring the gospel to all nations. (Before the skeptical reader dismisses these claims as an overstatement of the dispensational position, I should clarify that I am not dispensationalist, unlike many of my FRC colleagues.)

Below are four reasons why anti-Semitism is anti-Christian, largely based on Paul’s extended discussion on the fate of the Jewish people in Romans 9-11.

1. God chose to work through Israel in history.

As every Bible reader is aware, the revelation of God’s plan largely focuses on the Jewish people, specifically the ancient nation of Israel. Although mostly insignificant to human eyes, the storyline of Scripture almost exclusively focuses on this one people from Genesis 12 until at least Acts 10.

Why? What was special about Israel that deserved so much attention? Nothing, according to their own Scriptures, except that God had chosen them. “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,” Moses told the nation on the verge of the conquest, “but it is because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:7).

Did Israel have anything that recommended them to God’s love? Nothing again, according to their own Scriptures. Abraham was a pagan idolater living “beyond the Euphrates” when God first called him (Joshua 24:2). Jacob was “a wandering Aramean” whose descendants were enslaved (Deuteronomy 26:5-6). Israel’s subsequent history is a sad cycle of rebellion, stubbornness, and unfaithfulness to their covenant Lord.

No, nothing but God’s own sovereign purpose made him set his love on Israel. God established, bore with, and preserved Israel simply because of his own free promises that he made to them. If anything, God chose Israel merely to set for himself the most difficult challenges.

And this is one reason why Christians should reject anti-Semitic hatred of the Jewish people. God chose to set his love on them to magnify his own glorious name, and people who claim to love God should also seek what glorifies his name. “As regards the gospel, they [unbelieving Jews] are enemies for your [Gentiles’] sake,” Paul allowed. “But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).

The moment that God’s gifts and calling can be revoked is the moment Christians should become anti-Semitic.

Some readers may object that God has not equally loved every physical descendant of Abraham. They might appeal to Romans 9, “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel … but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Romans 9:6-8).

Now that God’s new covenant promises have come to the Gentiles, the argument goes, the promises to Israel are not for ethnic Israel as such, but they are expanded to God’s chosen people under the new covenant, composed of both Jews and Gentiles.

There is plenty of biblical warrant for this argument; it is not anti-Semitic because it places Jews on the same footing as everyone else — all must be saved through faith in Christ. At the same time, Paul also seems to retain a special category for Jews, in the same section of his letter, based on the principle that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” To faithfully hold to the whole counsel of God, we must affirm both that the church is an expansion of “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) and that God has specially chosen the people of Israel.

2. God preserved a remnant of Israel.

This leads to a second reason why anti-Semitism is anti-Christian: God has preserved a Jewish remnant, granting them faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

After lamenting the unbelief of the majority of Jews in Romans 9-10, Paul adds, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).

In these verses, Paul emphatically rejects the idea that God had rejected the Jewish people as a whole. In fact, he presents himself as an example of an ethnic Jew who believed in Jesus Christ for salvation. The descriptors he piles on — “an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin” — leave no doubt that Paul is of ethnic Israel here. Especially the reference to the tribe of Benjamin rules out any possible analogy to Gentile Christians.

Paul continues to explain that “at the present time there is a remnant” of Israel, “chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). Only this chosen remnant of Israel obtained the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of a Messiah, while “the rest were hardened” (Romans 11:7).

Paul argues that the idea of a remnant was no innovation on his part. For an Old Testament type, he reaches back to ancient Israel, when God tells Elijah he will preserve 7,000 Israelites who did not worship Baal (Romans 11:2-4; 1 Kings 19:10, 18).

Throughout Israel’s history, God had preserved a faithful few, even when it looked like the nation as a whole had rejected him. Likewise, today, even though many ethnic Jews reject Jesus as their Messiah, a remnant believes. If a remnant of Jews becomes Christian, why would Christians despise God’s people as a whole?

Furthermore, Paul argues that even unbelieving Jews play a crucial role for Gentile Christians. “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles,” he asserts (Romans 11:11).

Historically speaking, Paul lived out this very principle in Pisidian Antioch during his first missionary journey:

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:45-48).

Although unbelieving Jews are no friends of Jesus, Gentile Christians should be grateful to God that their unbelief paved the way for Gentile inclusion. They fall into the same category as trials and persecutions — what seems negative but is really for our spiritual benefit.

3. God delivered great blessings through Israel.

On that note, many of the Christian benefits enjoyed by Gentile Christians are received through the Jewish people. For example, “the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God,” a reference to the Spirit of God’s self-revelation in Holy Scripture (Romans 3:2). With one exception (Luke), we can say that every biblical author was an ethnic Jew — even with relative confidence for the books whose author is not known.

If it were not for the Jewish people, who carefully preserved and copied these sacred writings, we would not have access to God’s revelation today. The Jewish Scriptures (or Old Testament) contain God’s revelation of his holy character, his work in creation, his moral law, and his promised plan of redemption.

God’s revelation in Scripture was always intended to advance God’s glory among the nations. Moses told Israel that keeping God’s law “will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8).

In fact, Paul’s meditation on every benefit that comes through the Jews leads him to break out in praise. “They are Israelites,” he writes, “and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:4-5).

4. God will yet redeem “all Israel.”

The three reasons above argue that anti-Semitism is anti-Christian based upon what God has done through and to Israel. This fourth reason focuses on what God will do in the future.

Romans 11 paints the big picture: Israel’s unbelief will lead to the salvation of the Gentiles. In turn, the salvation of the Gentiles will “make Israel jealous” of the salvation that is their birthright (Romans 11:11), so they will ultimately turn to God. He argues from the lesser to the greater, “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” (Romans 11:12).

Ultimately, Paul describes this as a “mystery,” a plan of God previously concealed but now revealed. “A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26).

There are, admittedly, multiple interpretations of the phrase “all Israel” in Romans 11:26. In his commentary on Romans, New Testament scholar Dr. Tom Schreiner presents three main views: that “all Israel” refers to “the church of Jesus Christ,” “a remnant throughout history,” or “a dramatic future salvation for Israel” (he ultimately advocates the third view).

Regardless of the exact interpretation, however, Paul’s point still stands that God has a future plan to save many people, a plan that involves ethnic Israel.

The Right Posture

These four reasons should compel Christians to dissociate themselves with the nasty business of Jew-hating. Instead, Paul commends to us two postures of the heart which will cause us to approach ethnic Israel in a profoundly Christian manner.

First, do not be arrogant. This is Paul’s command in his famous metaphor of the grafted olive tree. “If some of the branches were broken off [unbelieving Jews], and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others [believing Gentiles] and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree [Jesus Christ], do not be arrogant toward the branches,” Paul warns (Romans 11:17-18).

Paul grounds this posture of humility in the doctrine that every Christian’s standing depends not on their own merit, but on the grace of God through faith. “They [the natural branches] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith,” Paul tells the Gentiles. “So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” (Romans 11:20-21).

Thus, Paul applies some of Jesus’s final teaching to the context of Jew-Gentile relations. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

Second, seek Israel’s salvation. This is what Paul sought. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved,” he wrote (Romans 10:1). Indeed, Paul desired Israel’s salvation so fervently that he almost wished that he himself could be cut off from Christ in their place (Romans 9:3).

Of course, Paul was a fallen human being, capable of error and sin, just as we are. Thus, we should only follow his example where he is showing us the way of Christ. As Paul himself wrote, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Does Paul’s wish for Israel’s salvation imitate Christ? Indeed, it does. Jesus also lamented Israel’s hard-hearted rejection of their Messiah, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:27).

Thus, the question for us is this: if Jesus sought Israel’s salvation, and Paul sought Israel’s salvation, do we? And if we desire Israel’s salvation, how can we hate ethnic Jews and indulge discriminatory, anti-Semitic attitudes? Such attitudes are not only proud and unloving, but they oppose God’s revealed plan for his chosen people. Nothing could be more un-Christian than that.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

This article originally appeared here.