As a Reformed Christian, I embrace the doctrines of the New Covenant. I recognize that God has called out for Himself a new people from among Israel and the Nations- namely, the Church. I believe that the way God’s people live in light of the Mosaic Covenant is fundamentally different than it was in the past. And above all, I have confidence that Yeshua is the revealed Messiah of Israel and the Nations and that no one comes to the Father, but by Him. I say this in prelude, because I must challenge a dangerous trend within my own spiritual community-that is the language of anti-Judaism that is prevalent in Reformed writing on all kinds of theological subjects. In the midst of communicating the truth regarding the Church as the people of God, Israel, the first people of God, has been unjustly slandered, sometimes due to lack of care in choice of language and wording, but often, quite deliberately.
Throughout a recent course on Jewish history, I have been exposed to a good deal of writing addressing the Jewish people by the church fathers, the medieval Roman Catholic clergy and the Protestant Reformers. Some of the writings have clearly been hostile and violent toward the Jews as an ethnic and social group. These anti-Semitic works and philosophies were obviously a source of antagonism and pain for the Jewish people throughout the era of Christendom, and since the Holocaust at least, true Christians have abandoned such a posture toward the people of Israel.
Other comments and attitudes, however, are less direct, less aggressive and consequently, may have greater potential for dangerous influence. These works are not overtly anti-Semitic, but are clearly anti-Judaism. Christian theologians, scholars, pastors and lay people alike in the 20th and 21st centuries who would never dream of using Justin Martyr or Luther’s language against the Jews, often speak so strongly against Judaism that Jewish people, messianic and otherwise, cannot help but flinch. Authors like Gary Burge write against Zionism the Jews right to the land of Israel. Leading Reformed theological teachers, such as John Piper (someone I deeply respect!) , make statements in defense of the Gospel of Christ that take the right to be called “Jewish” away from the very people who have suffered as Jews for centuries.
I have been challenged that Jewish people and Christian Zionists (I among them) are simply too sensitive to anti-Semitism and find it in places where it does not exist. A Christian who fully embraces the doctrines of the New Covenant cannot help but theologically come in conflict with Judaism. It is true that the reality is that the Jewish people, as a whole, have rejected the One that the Church embraces as Messiah. I have been challenged to consider that anti-Judaism, borne out of theological conviction, does not equate anti-Semitism and that Christians should not be judged as anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish because they speak theologically in regards to the spiritual state of Jewish people who have not embraced Jesus. To compare to Origen, Martyr, Luther, or even Hitler, the Reformed Christians who have written such works as Burge and Piper may certainly seem unnecessarily inflammatory. I certainly do not intend or desire to name these brothers in the same breath as antichrists such as Antiochus IV and Hitler. Yet, in love for my Jewish and Christian brethren alike, I must point out an unavoidable fact to my Reformed Christian brothers and sisters- History speaks. Anti-Judaism has always led, and will always lead to anti-Semitism.
In my reading of such Christian leaders as Bernard of Clairvaux, Augustine and John Calvin, I see a polemic against Judaism borne not out of a hatred of ethnic Jews, but out of what I believe was a sincere desire to preserve the Gospel of grace. It is not the defense of grace that was dangerous to the Jewish community, but rather the language used to communicate it. Throughout history, the average man has taken the words of the scholar and teacher and taken them beyond the originator’s projected influence. For example, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote during the 2nd Crusade exhorting soldiers not to harm the Jews. Yet his own writings emphasizing the spiritual blindness and hardness of the Jews contained such language that many were encouraged in hatred of the Jews through them. I believe that the words Reformed Christian writers today can have the same effect. I believe it because I already see it in the rise of anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian sentiment in churches and in the distant attitude many Christians bear toward Jewish people.
Our responsibility to the Jewish people as Christians is quite clear in the New Testament. In Romans 9-11, Paul shows us his own heart for the salvation of the Jewish people and gives a challenge to be the preacher who brings the good news to Israel. His language toward the Jewish people is clearly Gospel, but also clearly loving. Our goal toward the Jewish people is to win them to Yeshua. This will not happen through internal language that revives old memories of the Crusades and the Holocaust. We have much to overcome as Christians in regards to relationship with the Jewish people. I dare say we have much to repent for. I beseech my Reformed Christian brothers and sisters to be so determined to proclaim the love and the glory of God to the Jewish people that we would stop making the mistakes of the past, and guard our language and attitudes toward Israel and Jewish people. May we no longer be guilty of careless or aggressive language that distracts from the beauty of the Jewish Messiah.
Sola Deo Gloria.
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