By Bill McKayThe entwined history of Jews and Christians has, as a part of its chronicle, remarkable high points and destructive low points in its 2000 years. In fact, the low points in this uneasy relationship far outweigh the best of times for the Jews, as they have lived among the greater Christian populations in Europe and America. This raises a profoundly important question: Why would Christianity, based on the teaching of love and forgiveness, inculcate the values of hatred and discrimination toward the Jewish People, as evidenced by perpetual anti-Semitism? The answer may well lie in the history of “the Church.”
The Trifecta
In 325 A.D. a body of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine. This ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in Christendom on key theological doctrines, namely the settlement of the Christological issue of the relationship of Jesus to God the Father, among other theological issues of the day.In the years that followed, the Catholic Church, with the Bishop of Rome as the “head of the Church,” emerged as the dominant religion of Christianity. For the first time in three centuries, after the death and resurrection of the Messiah, spiritual power had been consolidated and the Christian message of good news, organically transmitted from one Believer to the next, was transformed into an institution of religion.Central to the emerging religion was this question: Who represented God’s elect or His Chosen People? Historically and biblically, the Jews had carried this title. However, this was now the Gentile age, as the Catholic Church defined it, and if a new religion was to be birthed, a new “elect” must be chosen. So, the Catholic Church leaders turned their attention to the critical issue of bloodline. Who could legally lay claim to the title? If it were to be the Gentiles, then the Jewish line would have to be cut off. Therefore, they legally sought to adjudicate the question: Who killed the Messiah?In the end, the Catholic Church deemed the Jews “Christ killers.” From this point forward, this decree became the license for every European king, tyrant, mayor, and “village idiot” to inflict retribution on the Jewish People. Wave upon wave of anti-Semitism swept over Europe, all in the name of "Christ," with the explicit use of the Cross as its signature symbol. Thus, the first step in the trifecta was completed: The Jews killed Jesus, singularly, and were, therefore, disinherited.The second step was to move the spiritual capital from Jerusalem to Rome. Then, the final step was in the form of papal art depicting Yeshua as a European Anglo. It would be a great deal easier to arouse the European masses to commit to wholesale anti-Semitism if Jesus did not have the physical characteristics of a Middle Eastern Jew.The objective was quite simple when power was usurped through a coup. In the case of a political or military coup, and in the deposing of a king, you must kill off all heirs to the throne. As a result, the “elder Jewish” brother of Christianity must be removed, at all costs. For the next 17 centuries, the theological essence of the “Jew as Christ Killer” was not only codified into law, but also the lexicon of every European language. As the Catholic Church merged its power with the secular kings of Europe, the various forms of anti-Semitism were quite lethal. The result was a great divide between Christian and Jew, which remains until this day. And, more particularly, the Jew will view all of Christianity through this historical prism.
The ‘New’ Promised Land
During the great scourge of the Jewish People in England, many Jews were forced to leave the island they called home. Other Jews, to protect their families and modest wealth, took Christian names and “converted to Christianity.”Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish scholar of the 20th and 21st centuries, researched in his book Why Are Jews Liberal? a profoundly interesting piece of history, related to the English Reformation, as practiced by the Puritans. During this wholly unique period in the English Reformation history, the Puritans had welcomed the Jews as brothers, even to the point that they “regarded the ‘old’ dispensation as binding and even reverted to its practices,” according to Cecil Roth.Podhoretz defined the characteristics of the Puritans who came to America this way: “it is true beyond question that, in sharp contrast to the Christians of Europe, who downplayed the Old Testament and concentrated mainly on the New, the Puritans tended to be more attracted to—and even fixated on—the Old rather than the New.”To prove the extent to which these Puritans were committed to a fully integrated Bible and structure for society, they enacted half of the statues in the Code of 1655 from the Old Testament, while only three percent were from the New Testament—according to historians Max Baker and Paul Masserman. Today, if you travel to the New England states, you will find many towns named directly from the Old Testament. This demonstrates the love and reverence the Puritans had for Jewish history. In contrast to Jews’ historical relationship to Catholic Europe, this was a seismic shift.Building on this foundation, Constitutional framers like Thomas Jefferson fought and won the battle to separate the State from the Church. The effect was a new right—a right to the freedom of religion from the tyranny practiced in the preceding centuries in Europe. The net effect, for the Jewish People, was more freedom and prosperity than they had ever known in Europe. This is not to suggest that America was free from its own unique forms of anti-Semitism. However, in contrast to the centuries of a perfected art of European anti-Semitism, this was the “new” Promised Land for Jewish People.
The Evangelicals and the Jewish People
Over the past 30 years, I have had the privilege of traveling to Israel some 68 times. Many of these trips were for the filming of various projects. As a result of the airing of some of our programs on the BBC, Fox Television, and distributed to the PBS audiences, I have been asked to speak to Jewish groups. One such event took place several years ago in the uber-wealthy community of Brentwood, California. I was there to address a group of several hundred Jewish leaders. In the Q & A session following my lecture, I was asked the quintessential pejorative question, from a Jewish perspective: “Do the Evangelicals support Israel just so they can convert them to Christianity?” Needless to say, I took a long and deep breath. I fully understood the implication behind the question. Furthermore, I knew from my years of building deep friendships with American Jews and Israelis that the Jewish People did not differentiate between Catholic and Protestant. Catholics, and every stripe of the Protestant Reformation, were collectively responsible for the sum of all forms of anti-Semitism of the past 17 centuries.After several long moments, as I studied the faces in the audience, I decided to answer the question with a question. “Allow me to ask you this: As the Jewish People, you have faced down bloodthirsty tyrants like Haman. You have survived the savagery of the Czars and Cossacks. You found a way to live through and survive the greatest threat to the Jews in all of history by outliving the demonic hatred of Hitler and his minions . . . Now, tell me this: If some little old lady from Alabama comes up to you and tells you that Jesus loves you, in a Southern drawl, are you going to be intimidated and offended that she has attempted to proselytize you? In my opinion, you are well educated, well traveled, and an extraordinarily sophisticated people, and for that matter, tough enough to deal with the words ‘Jesus loves you.’ You said no to Hitler, you said no to the Czars. My sense is that if some kindhearted Christian goes out of his way to share the Gospel, you can say no, as well.”After several seconds of quiet tension, the audience broke into laughter and applause.As I have told countless Jews in my various public appearances and one on one, the Evangelicals support Israel and the Jewish People because of their deep reverence for the Bible. They take the Bible literally as the Word of God. Thus, Christians are commanded to “bless” the Jews. Additionally, Evangelicals, unlike the Catholics of the third century, have no desire to displace the “Elder Brother.” In fact, they wholeheartedly embrace the “Elder Brother” and the teaching that Christianity is a mere branch grafted into the Jewish Olive Tree, per the teaching of St. Paul. This acceptance of Jews, and the teachings of the Old Testament as central to Evangelical theology, is a direct result of the English Reformation and right for common men to read the entire Bible, Old and New, in English.At the end of the day, Evangelicals welcome all the peoples of the earth, along with Jews, to follow the Messiah. They do not discriminate by race. Furthermore, when it comes to Israel, Evangelicals have not and will not make their support conditioned upon the Jews accepting Jesus as Messiah. From an Evangelical perspective, Israel is the result of a divine and unconditional promise to Abraham and cannot be broken. To put a fine point on it, the Jews of the Old Testament period and the Jews of the 21st century are the Chosen People.As I travel all over the world and meet with Evangelicals from China to the remotest parts of Africa, there is one thing that Evangelicals want the Jews of Israel, America, and the world to know, and it is this: You’re Not Alone, any more.
Bill McKay has for more than thirty years thrived as an author, filmmaker, and researcher. As founder of American Trademark Pictures, McKay has produced and written countless television specials, documentaries, radio programs, and docudrama films. In 2006‐2010 his docudrama series Against All Odds: Israel Survives became an international television hit.
