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November 20, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

No Matter How Deep Antisemitism Runs, It Must be Uprooted!

It is one thing to expose the vile monster of global antisemitism week after week, but beyond the exposure, we must make an effort–at least individual if not corporate–to fight it. As a result of our voices and actions, in some cases, we can nip it in the bud or even reverse it. An encouraging–and yet limited– example of this, is what happened at CNN a few days ago in a statement made by senior anchorwoman Christiane Amanpour. My intention is not to freely bash Ms. Amanpour, but rather to analyze her statement and apology in the scope of the current rise in antisemitism.

During the second week of November, she made this statement, ” This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.”

She received a lot of criticism and days after, at the end of her program, she issued this apology, “and finally tonight, a comment on my program at the end of last week. I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do. It is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump’s attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth. I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts. Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history. I regret any cause my statement may have caused. My point was to say how democracy can potentially slip away, and how we must always zealously guard our democratic values.”

Much was said in those two short statements. First, I must commend Ms. Amanpour for remembering the defining events of Kristallnacht. As a Jew who lost members of my family in the Holocaust, I make a point of remembering AND telling the current and future generations about the atrocities of Kristallnacht and how it triggered the Holocaust. Beyond the initial acknowledgment though, the statement quickly turned caustic. I find it interesting that Ms. Amanpour spoke of genocide against a whole identity, but couldn’t see herself using the words “Jews” or “Jewish.” It seems that whenever used in a positive context or to describe victimhood, people seem to shy away from such words, but when needed to describe “crimes against humanity”, “occupation of Palestinian land” or “colonization”, the word easily roll off one’s tongue. Another case of double-standards?

She was spot on, about the genocidal agenda, but she could only speak of an “identity” and a tower of burning books. The reality was that thousands of buildings, including many synagogues, were leveled, not to mention the death of over 100 Jewish people. But then, Ms. Amanpour described the massacre as “an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth.” While there is an element of truth in that statement, it looks like these values were listed to facilitate a connection between Nazi ideology and Trump policies–a connection that is truly NOT based on fact, history, knowledge and truth. The fact is, Kristallnacht was an organized pogrom and boycott against the German Jewish community. It was all about the genocide of European Jewry. Her words appeared to be an attempt at minimizing and distorting the Holocaust.

The facts are that no other US administration has done more for Jewish people and other minorities than this current one. But was seems to be implied here is that President Trump has been leading an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth against Americans across the board. This is a view that, while promoted by much of the more liberal media outlets, doesn’t justify comparing President to Hitler and his genocidal agenda.

Ms. Amanpour almost immediately received a lot of criticism from across various communities and issued an apology within a couple of days. The people spoke up and called CNN which resulted in the aired apology. Was she compelled, led, or forced to do so we do not know, but her apology was almost as damaging as her initial libel. She properly summarized Kristallnacht as “the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust” and even though she clearly said that she should have not compared Trump to Hitler, she still equated Trump’s policies to “attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth.”

My concern is that Ms. Amanpour’s statement has graver consequences than a statement followed by an apology. It is a symptom of a deeper problem that I have tried to expose in the past. I see four issues in that apology:

• Her diatribe was not an isolated incident: She regularly accuses Israel of crimes not committed, based on her personal wrong assumptions about history and the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. She has gone as far as calling Jewish people terrorists and children murderers in 2008 on CNN when, in an interview, she stated “And, although the number is small, there are terrorists — Jewish terrorists, including some who would even kill Palestinians children.”

• Her diatribe unequivocally exposes her real mindset: I have said this before, the very fact that someone would be willing to make such comments about the Jewish people, or any other people for that matter, shows that it is part of their mindset. It is always good when they apologize, but these apologies are usually short-lived and often overshadowed by the next libel. The very fact that Ms. Amanpour thought to compare President Trump to Hitler is the bigger problem.

• Her apology was only skin deep: Ms. Amanpour probably got called in by her boss and asked to issue some kind of an apology to preserve ratings and control the justified ire of the Jewish community and of many other people of goodwill. Her half-baked apology didn’t sound sincere, and that is very sad.

• Her words don’t seem to put her job in jeopardy: Outside of this recent half-baked apology, claiming that she regretted having made her comments, her repeated diatribes have not been taken back or even put her CNN anchor’s position in jeopardy. She has repeatedly denigrated Israel and promoted the Palestinian narrative with no consequences affecting her job.

At the end of the day, I still think that it is a good thing that her libel was exposed for what it is and that she was forced to issue a statement of apology. Even if she wasn’t sincere, she needed to be exposed for her ignorance of history–willful or not– and blatant antisemitism.

• We must teach historical truth to others, especially our children and regardless of how uncomfortable any part of history was.

• We must show our Jewish community support when they are being attacked either verbally or physically.

• We must refrain from character assassination as retribution, no matter how frustrated and angry we might become.

• We have to stop believing that this doesn’t concern us if it is not directly affecting us personally.

• Ignorance should never be used as an excuse, especially in the age of instant communication.

• We cannot remain silent on the assumption that one voice will not amount to anything.

The Bible is actually clear about this as we read in Proverbs 24:10-12, “If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, “See, we did not know this, Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”

Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act, and to look the other way turns us into co-perpetrators. We all have a choice!

November 13, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The One End Times Prophecy You Can Take to the Bank Today!

The words “end times”, “prophecy” or “prophetic” usually get people’s attention when uttered, and they should! Unfortunately, a lot of false teaching is being done under the heading of “end times prophecies” and it can be very damaging. There is a proper, healthy way to look at the prophetic word, biblically. But let’s start by defining what we mean by prophecy. The word “prophecy” comes from two Greek words meaning, “to speak for or before”. Thus, prophecy means to be speaking or writing about events for someone or before they occurred. All prophecies of the Bible are from God only, and none of them were from the prophet’s origin (2 Peter 1:20.) The prophet of God can either be used for forth-telling (inspired telling) or foretelling (predicting). In both cases, they are directed by God Himself for the benefit of mankind. From that perspective, almost 30% of the Tenach (Old Testament) is prophetic, and almost 22% of the B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) is prophetic.

More and more people are wondering why we should even study prophecy. Intimidated by apparent biblical difficulties, inconsistencies or contradictions, people give up on prophecy and miss out on about one third of the counsel of God. We should study prophecy for several reasons:

• It comforts and calms: God has always been in control of all events of history. We are comforted (John 14:1-4) with the fact that He gave us His unchanging word, especially messianic prophecies that were all literally fulfilled in ONE person, the future unfulfilled prophecies will likewise be literally fulfilled.
• It cleanses and changes: In light of the fact that Yeshua of Nazareth could return at any moment, we should strive to lead lives that are pleasing to Him. (Titus 2:14; 2 Peter 3:13-14). In the effort to lead better lives for Him, we cannot avoid growing closer to God.
• It helps us understand who Messiah is and who God is: By studying messianic prophecies in the Tenach (Old Testament), we discover that through progressive revelation, God has granted us with increasing knowledge about the person, character, timeline and redemptive career of Messiah. Eventually, as the prophecies are studied within the grammatical/historical context, they all point to the same person: Yeshua of Nazareth.

But we must be careful to properly approach the prophetic word. Many approaches to the study of prophecy have been introduced over the ages. It is important to use a consistent approach when studying prophecy, as switching between approaches might satisfy our desire for an interpretation that fits our needs or understanding, but would do a disservice to God’s word. The proper study of prophecy helps us understand the whole Bible and it motivates us to live godly lives.

Towards that goal, we must remember the David L. Cooper’s “Golden Rule of Interpretation”: “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” The bottom line is this; a text apart from its context is a pretext!

Regardless of all the warnings about taking Scripture out of context to fit the news or one’s opinion (eisegesis), people thrive on speculating on end times events. Newspaper eisegesis is running rampant today. Especially in the era of the Internet and social networks, it is easy for someone to become a self-proclaimed prophecy teacher, throwing a bible verse here and there to impress their online audiences.

Trying to identify the Antichrist or pinpoint the exact date of the Rapture of the believers are two favorite topics for a lot of people. There have been more potential candidates for the office of antichrist over the ages, than we can count or list here. Some say that he will be a Muslim, others say that he will be a Jew or a Gentile. People are divided on that topic, but it preaches well, and it sells books even better. A thorough study of the prophet Daniel and the book of Revelation will equip us to understand that the Antichrist will be a Gentile leader (read “totalitarian dictator”) who will appear on the world scene after the Rapture of the believers, as soon as the Great Tribulation starts (Daniel 9:27.)

As to the Rapture, people have been speculating on the exact date when it will occur, when in fact nobody knows the day or the hour. These, as Ed Hindson and Mark Hitchcock state, are “calculated guesses based upon interpretive assumptions” at best. We can learn from a study of God’s word that the Rapture will happen, and that it will be before the Tribulation, although not everybody agrees on the timing, but nobody should set a firm date. I often imagine Yeshua, currently at the right hand of God, looking down on us and each time someone sets a new date, He shrugs and says: “They set a new date for the Rapture, I got to postpone again!” I say this tongue-in-cheek of course, but there is some truth in that statement.

Now, I promised you at least one end times bible prophecy that you can take to the bank, I will actually give you two. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the prophetic word cannot be trusted or is with error. It simply means that we should tread the prophetic landscape carefully, lest we have to back pedal on some unfounded dogmatic statement we made. As to the currents events that we can know for sure are part of the prophetic future, they are the apostasy of the Church and the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

The apostasy of the Church is promised in the Bible. Paul said that the Antichrist will not be revealed to the world until “the apostasy comes first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3.) Additionally, Yeshua prophesied that “many will fall away” and “most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:10, 12.) It is not difficult to see that much of the Church today is increasingly shifting towards that toxic behavior. Revelation 2 and 3 also give us some examples of the great falling away. Are we in the midst of the great apostasy? Will it get worse before it gets better? Are we not there yet? I think that we have started as a Church to see the falling away but it will get worse, and I am not even talking about the Great Tribulation, but what must take place before it.

Now, let’s look at the one world event that we are living through today that is a guarantee that we are in the last days. I am speaking of the regathering of the Jewish people to the land of Eretz Yisrael. God promised to restore the land of Israel and He did when He allowed for the birth of the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948. Beyond the restoration of the land, He also promised in Ezekiel that the Jewish people would return to it in the end times. Ezekiel 36:24 is clear, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.” This speaks of the physical restoration of Israel and it has literally been happening in front of our very eyes for the last few decades. Additionally, In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is given a vision known as “the vision of the valley of dry bones”, in which he is told that Jewish people will return to Israel. This is about Israel’s national restoration, which is controlled by the God of Israel.

Jews have been coming to Israel under “the Law of Return” since 1948, but even more so in the last few decades. God is directing His chosen people back to His land for the final days before the return of the Mashiach. France has lost 50,000 Jews in the last 30 years, most of them in the last 15, due to the increased antisemitism that we have been witnessing lately. Is God behind this surge in antisemitism? He is not, but He can easily allow it as part of His divine plan. After all, He allowed for Satan to mess with Job at a level that most of us cannot even comprehend, but God did not hurt Job Himself. Can God allow for antisemitism to increase so that His chosen people will return home to Israel? Can God allow us to get into difficult and dangerous situations to draw us closer to Him, the answer is yes to both.

But, the national physical restoration is only part of this world event, because we will also see the spiritual rebirth of Israel as we read in Ezekiel 36:25-27, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Frankly, the national regathering of Israel is nothing short of a miracle. We, the Jews should not exist, if it was not for God’s grace and the fact that He made promises to Israel that He ratified in His covenants. The fact that Jewish people are moving to Israel in droves from the four corners of the world should encourage us about God’s promises. It is the one current end times prophecy that we can claim is happening in front of our very eyes. What it does, is that it confirms that the word of God is true, tested and guaranteed.

We do not need to know the exact identity of the Antichrist (if you do know his identity, it actually means that you were left behind and are suffering through the Great Tribulation, and you don’t really want that to happen to you!) We also do not need to know the exact date for the Rapture, we just need to know that it will happen for sure (it is actually the next prophetic event on God’s timetable and could happen anytime now.) What we need to know, is that as we see the Jewish people repopulating their ancestral biblical land, we are living in the end times for sure and this should encourage us and motivate us to share the Gospel with people.

November 6, 2020 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Kristallnacht and the Temple Mount: What Can They Possibly Have in Common?

Sometimes when I look at the history of Israel and the Jewish people, I feel like I am watching the opening credits of a Star Wars movie. The main theme appears in text form from the bottom of the screen and slowly moves up as its size reduces towards the horizon and eventually disappears off the screen completely. As years go by, I continue to see the absolute necessity to tell people about critical markers on the timeline of Israel and the global Jewish community. This is why I continue to educate my audience about things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, BDS and other important events that plague the Jewish people.

If it happens today, it is part of the news, but as soon as tomorrow hits, it becomes part of history. The problem is that not all of history is worth recalling, but whose choice is it to pick what part of history to remember? We all have different interests, customs, traditions and even agendas. They all dictate what we choose to remember, commemorate or celebrate. This being said, there are events that transcend history and must be recalled by all, lest history becomes forgotten, erased or altered, putting us in a dangerous position where history could repeat itself.

One of these nefarious events took place on the night of November 9-10, 1938 and is remembered every November as Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass.” But, before we can look at Kristallnacht, we must consider what just happened to the Temple mount that will help us to understand how the two are connected.

This is not the first attempt and probably not the last one either, but 138 countries of the United Nations approved a draft resolution naming the Temple Mount solely as an Islamic holy site, by the name of al-Haram al-Sharif. The title of the resolution itself is so politically charged that it shows the slant taken, “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem.” It is important to note the few countries that voted against the resolution. They were Israel, Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and the United States. The European countries who supported the resolution were Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK to name just a few who also claim to be friends with Israel?

The Temple Mount currently hosts several buildings that are all Muslim. The Dome of the Rock with its gorgeous golden roof–often mistaken for a mosque–is an islamic shrine containing the rock/location from where, according to Islam, Abraham ascended to heaven. The Dome of the Rock was built in the 7th Century AD and further renovated and restored throughout the centuries. The Temple Mount also includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque that was built in AD 705, just a few decades after the Dome of the Rock. Many archeological excavations and studies have been made on the Temple Mount. It was believed for a while that there were no Jewish connections to the area, or at least, as stated by British archeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon, “no trace of the Temple remained.” She eventually changed her views to declare that much of the remains of Herod’s Temple (2nd Temple) could still be found. Additionally, remains of Solomon’s Temple (First Temple) were also discovered underground, proving without the shadow of a doubt that the geographical location known as the Temple Mount did indeed host both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. For an in-depth archeological, historical and biblical study of the Temple and its surroundings over the centuries, Dr. Randall Price wrote his authoritative volume, The Temple in Bible Prophecy: A Definitive Look at Its Past, Present and Future.

No serious scholar or archeologist would venture to say that the Temple Mount has no Jewish connections, unless they had an agenda and wanted to push a narrative to delegitimize Israel’s presence and right to self-determination. This is exactly what we are seeing at the present time. This resolution is yet another attempt at re-writing history and delegitimizing Israel. This allows Israel’s foes to paint the Jewish state as an oppressor, invader and colonizer, trying to claim Muslim land, when in fact the real estate where the Temple Mount is located precedes Muslim history by at almost 2,000 years, Solomon’s Temple era having started around 1000 BCE. Biblically speaking, the destruction of the second Temple that took place in AD 70, was prophesied by Yeshua Himself in Matthew 24:2, “And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” It is nothing short of a miracle that we can actually find even traces of the two Jewish building at that location.

So, when the United Nations declare that the Temple Mount has no Jewish connection, they de facto become co-conspirators in the crime of delegitimization of Israel. The danger here, is that if people believe that Israel has no right to the area, it further feeds the narrative of Israel’s occupation and crimes against humanity. Now, the question still remains, “How does the Temple Mount connect historically to Kristallnacht?” Well, it doesn’t connect historically, but it does connect politically, and this is how.

First, a little background on the events that transpired in Germany on the night of November 9-10, 1938. During that dreadful night, a critical event took place that would seal the fate of six million European Jews. That was 82 years ago. The event is known as Kristallnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass.” The reason given by the Nazis was the assassination of German official Ernst vom Rath, shot two days prior by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish teenager reacting to his parents’ deportation. In reality, the boycott/pogrom of Jewish synagogues, schools, businesses and homes resulting in the death of almost 100 Jewish people and the destruction of 7,500 properties was well planned, and anything but a reaction to the death of a German official. Additionally, 30,000 Jewish people were sent to concentration camps. Historians agree that Kristallnacht was the onset of the Holocaust, shifting Nazi antisemitism from mere rhetoric to pure violence and murder. It set in motion the death factories aimed at accomplishing “the final solution.” They almost succeeded!

So, it is very important to remember Kristallnacht and tell our children about it, especially in light of current world events. We have seen an increase in acts of antisemitism worldwide, in several cases leading to the death of people in Europe and the United-States. Antisemitism has now become a reality almost on a daily basis. It can no longer be ignored, and yet in the eyes of many, it is not really that important of an issue. As a matter of fact, a recent survey showed that 32% to 50% of young Americans had very little to no knowledge or understanding of the Holocaust. Most couldn’t even name one concentration camp.

Alongside the ignorance of history, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is becoming mainstream. So mainstream that people don’t bother checking if any of its accusations are based on facts or fiction. People in Hollywood, in government and even in several Christian denominations are doing their best to cripple Israel and the Jewish people. They are not trying to bring justice to the Middle East as they would want us to believe but rather, they want to completely eradicate Israel from “Palestine”.

The Jewish people have also been accused by some, of creating propaganda with the events of Kristallnacht, the ghettos and the Holocaust, to build a case for themselves to move to “Palestine”, uproot the “native Palestinians” and settle down under the guise of Zionism. When people buy the false narrative of Jewish occupation on a “Muslim only” Temple mount area, they can easily be swayed into buying a revisionist position on Kristallnacht. After all, one of the best ways to completely eradicate a people group is to erase their history. If their history cannot be proven, maybe it never happened, and if it never happened, or was best grossly exaggerated, it also becomes easier to paint this people group as the problem. As it stands, most people are not history buffs. The era of the Internet and social networks has turned us all into consumers of information, and in and of itself, this is not a bad thing. The problem is that we used to be consumers of well prepared, nutritious meals as we took interest in the details of history. Today, most of us only have time for junk food as we barely digest the brief internet soundbites and headlines rarely checked for veracity. So, when people de-judaize the Temple Mount, nobody pays attention or if they do, they don’t question it. The generation that believes that the Temple Mount is a Muslim site only will have no problem believing that Kristallnacht was Jewish propaganda to claim the land of Israel. If and when history repeats itself, this current generation suffering from “self-imposed historical Alzheimer” might not see it coming before it is way too late. That is the very reason why we cannot remain silent!

October 30, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Can the Jews be Replaced Theologically or Ethnically?

The Jewish people have long been the thorn in the flesh of mankind. From century to century and from continent to continent, we have been unwanted, abused, harassed and exterminated, and yet, by the grace of the Almighty, we still exist (Jeremiah 31:35-37). Our very existence is irritating to many, and instead of taking it up with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they take matters in their own hand and go after the Jewish people, wherever we might be. The results have been increasingly lethal all over the globe.

Somehow, when it comes to the Jews, people passionately try to replace us. In all cases, the real Jews being replaced are becoming irrelevant or are being painted as impostors, easily turning them into a target for elimination. There are two main venues to replace the Jews: Theologically or ethnically. They both rely on faulty biblical views that need to be looked at, so that we can help people understand who really is a Jew, who are the ten lost tribes and what promises from God are still in effect for the real Jews.

Theologically, Israel has a place in the Bible in just about every single book. While not by name, it can easily be argued that God’s starting point to deal with the Jewish people and their descendants goes back to Genesis 12, where He makes an unconditional, eternal promise to Abraham and his descendants, reiterated in Genesis 15 as the Abrahamic Covenant, that is still very much in effect today, and absolutely unchanged as to its recipients. That is if you take a literal, grammatical/historical view of the Bible–an approach that isn’t necessarily favored by all. Theologically, many of the Church Fathers contributed to what would morph into the racial antisemitism of the Holocaust era and even the new antisemitism of today. Justin Martyr and Tertullian are two of them.

Justin Martyr (AD 120-185) was an early Christian apologist who is still revered in Church circles today. He is the author of the most important and most complete Christian tract against Jewish people in the second century, if not in all of the early Church Fathers’ writings, entitled Dialogue with Trypho in which he attempts to prove that Christianity has supplanted Judaism. Justin Martyr might also have been the first to erroneously claim that the Church was the true “Israel of God”, making him possibly the father of Replacement Theology. In the following example, he quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 and then introduces his reasoning for how he believes that the Church replaces Abraham’s descendants in God’s covenants (bold italic is Justin Martyr and italic is Scripture): “Again, in Isaiah, if you have ears to hear it, God, speaking of Christ in parable, calls Him Jacob and Israel: “Jacob is my servant, I will uphold Him; Israel is my elect, I will put my Spirit upon Him, and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any one hear His voice in the street: a bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench; but He shall bring forth judgment to truth: He shall shine, and shall not be broken till He have set judgment on the earth. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust. (Isaiah 42:1-4)”
As, therefore, from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has been called Jacob and Israel; so we from Christ, who begot us unto God, like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true sons of God, and keep the commandments of Christ.

In this instance, Justin Martyr used the allegorical approach to change a literal teaching into a subjective one, yielding a conclusion not supported by the Word of God. We can always prove our own points using an allegorical approach, but is God convinced?

What about Tertullian (AD 160-220), the Christian author who produced a large body of literature in Latin? He was also an apologist who taught against heresy. Tertullian has been called “the father of Latin Christianity” and “the founder of Western theology.” He was one of the first Church Fathers to formulate Trinitarian terminology. That contribution, along with other writings helping the early development of Christianity, then in its infancy, cannot be ignored.

In his work De Adversus Judaeos, “Against the Jews,” Tertullian goes after the Jewish people. Back then, his theological anti-Judaism was purely ideological. He used the Hebrew Scriptures to methodically disprove the relevancy of the Mosaic Law. He claimed that the Mosaic Law was given by God to the Jews because they were an inferior race of criminals whose crimes culminated in the killing of Christ. He then went on to prove that all blessings to ethnic Israel were then passed on to the “other nation” of God; The Christians. By the second century, the inferiority of Judaism had already taken root in Christian theology and was not questioned. The question is no longer “Is Judaism valid?” but “What are we to do with Judaism as a whole?” His contributions further paved the way for Replacement Theology, “There is proof that they [the Jews] were marked out indelibly as answerable for the crime of idolatry. In fact, our people — that is, the later — having forsaken the idols to which previously we used to be devoted, were converted to the same God from whom Israel departed, as we mentioned above. For thus the younger people — that is, the later — rose above the older people, while it was obtaining the grace of divine honor from which Israel has been divorced.”….”Originally, God gave the Law to Adam and Eve. It contains all the “hidden commands” of the Mosaic Law. In fact, it is the source of all Law from God. He who writes the Law has the right to modify it, so it should not be surprising that God would reform or “finish” the Law over time. How could Noah or Abraham have been considered righteous if God’s Law had not been given before Moses? How could Melchizedek have been “called a priest of the most high God” without the equivalent of Levitical law in place? In fact, God’s unwritten Law was kept “by the ancestors” for centuries before Moses. ….From this we understand that the law of God was already in existence before Moses, as [it has been given] first neither at Horeb, nor at Sinai, nor in the desert, but [it has been given] first at a more ancient time — in paradise — then afterwards to the patriarchs. And thus also, it has been given to the Jews at certain times when [God] wanted and has been reformed at certain times. The result is that now we do not pay attention to the law of Moses in such a way as though it were the first law, but as a subsequent one.”

Writer David Efroymson in his work on Tertullian, his influence and legacy, stated that many followed after Tertullian with their anti-Jewish diatribes and added this profound statement, alluding to the distant, but destructive, impact that Tertullian’s teachings had: “The road from here to Auschwitz is long and may not be direct, but one can get there from here.” And indeed, the road to Auschwitz was slowly but steadily being built by this and other early Christian pioneers of anti-Semitism. It can also be argued that that road did not dead end at the Holocaust but has continued to this day in a variety of ways.

So, the vast majority of the Church Fathers who took the Bible allegorically, claimed that God was done with Israel and the Jewish people. As a result, the Jews were theologically replaced by the “new Israel”, i.e.: the Christian Church. This is very difficult to validate biblically, unless some verses are interpreted allegorically. But, when we start looking at God’s word non-literally, where do we stop?

There is another way to look at Israel and replace the Jews. That one is from an ethnic perspective. We have heard that “modern Jews are not the real Jews!” or that “the ten lost tribes have been found!” Replacing the Jews with Christians in God’s plan for the ages is Replacement Theology, but replacing the Jews with another ethnic group is different. For a long time now, some people have claimed Jewish identity as belonging to one of the ten lost tribes. Various people groups have claimed to be from the ten tribes. The most famous and enduring one is known as the “British Israelites” which has a lot of similarities with “Black Israelites” as to how they perceive their Jewish identity. While both groups have common beliefs, they also have a lot of differences.

Author David Baron debunked British Israelism in a book he wrote in 1915. As he documents, much of the biblical arguments used in the British Israelite ideology are not biblical at all. A lot of important details have to be ignored or seriously altered to enable the square pegs of British Israelism or Black Israelism to fit in the round hole of the biblical Israel narrative. To name just two, the eternal throne of David belonging to Yeshua the Messiah (2 Samuel 7:12-26) has not been passed onto the British Empire, and there is no biblical, historical, geographical or archeological evidence that any or all of the 10 lost southern tribes ended up in the British Isles (or anywhere else) after the Jewish dispersion.

Similarly, Black Israelism, in some sort of a mirror image of British Israelism, is claiming–mostly in the USA, although also in Jerusalem– that Black Hebrews are the real Jews today. The Black Israelism ideology is not monolithic at all, as many groups fall under it. The founder of the Black Israelites movement, Ben Ammi, claimed to have been visited by the angel Gabriel who told him to lead the “Children of Israel” to the Promise Land. The more extreme sub-sects of the movement promote Black superiority, racism and antisemitism. These groups have been rejected by both Judaism and Christianity. The danger with this sort of elitism, is the relegating of the group it believes it replaces, to a place of inferiority, leading to denigration, loathing and, in our day and age, violence like we recently saw in Philadelphia.

Why do people insist on replacing the Jews either theologically or ethnically? I believe that both attempts are coming from God’s enemy Ha Satan, who desires to position himself as god and who hates those whom God loves. When any people group is replaced, it becomes irrelevant and possibly obsolete. Once a people group is deemed obsolete, it is in way of “progress” or “expansion” and becomes at risk. Our people were in Hitler’s way when he tried to establish the Aryan supremacy 80 years ago. We know what happened next! Nobody has the right to replace the Jews in God’s plan or for anything else. God created the Jewish people (Genesis 12) and Israel (Genesis 15) and anybody trying to flex His master program will have to contend with Him. The Jews of today are the physical descendants of the Jews of the twelve tribes of yesteryear, period! Nobody can change that, as hard as they try.

October 22, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Is the Gospel Jewish? Well…It’s Complicated!

One of the most controversial subjects to be discussed is the Gospel. What exactly do we mean by the Gospel, and why is it offensive to some and attractive to others? Most people would agree that the message of the Gospel is connected to the events around the life and ministry of Yeshua (Jesus). But this, in and of itself, is where the problem begins. Can the message be trusted as truth? Is the Gospel the same for everyone? Do all people need the Gospel to be saved? These are all important questions that I wish to address, all within the context of the Jewishness of the Gospel.

Some might argue, “Why does the Gospel have to be Jewish?” The truth of it is, the message of salvation might have been revolutionary to the Jewish audience to which it was presented, but it was not a message of conversion to another religion. The messenger was Jewish. Yeshua of Nazareth was a Jew in His humanity. He was born of a Jewish mother and adopted by a Jewish father. He was raised as a Jew, taught the Jewish Scriptures and went through his Bar mitzvah at the proper age.

The message is not Jewish per se, but it is not gentile either. It is a message about the depravity of mankind, the need for a redeemer who would pay the price for our wrongdoings and our need to trust Him in what He did on our behalf. Incidentally, part of the Jewish faith is a belief in two Messiahs. One that would come to suffer and die for His people–Messiah ben Joseph, and one that would come to conquer the world and reign from His throne in Jerusalem–Messiah ben David. It can be argued that Yeshua will fulfill both offices as He already came as Messiah ben Joseph and died on our behalf, only to rise again on the third day to eventually ascend back to heaven and wait there, until His return as Messiah ben David.

The problem starts when Jewish people believe that following Messiah today forces one to undergo an identity change from Jewish to Christian or Gentile. Let’s be clear, once a person is born a Jew ethnically, they die a Jew, regardless of what they believe in or don’t. So, what’s the big deal then? Two words must be understood to clarify the issue: Jewishness and Judaism. Jewishness is an unchangeable ethnic identity that can never be lost, while Judaism is a religion that can be practiced or not, and on a wide spectrum of beliefs, I must add.

A Jew remains a Jew if he practices Judaism or not. Practicing Christianity cannot change one’s ethnic DNA, it changes everything else though. It changes our outlook on life, our dependence on God and our final destination from eternal suffering to eternal bliss in God’s presence.

Some people continue to claim that the Bible is an antisemitic book. Just because some people take verses out of context and use them to justify their flawed and often hateful agendas, doesn’t make the Bible antisemitic. It does contain passages that paint Jewish people in a less than favorable way, not because they are Jewish, rather, because they are faulty human beings.

The original audience for the Gospel was almost exclusively Jewish, in a Jewish area, punctuated by the Jewish lifecycle calendar (Leviticus 23.) The earlier rejection of the Gospel by Jews was not because it changed them into gentiles, but because the claims of Yeshua appeared blasphemous to the Jewish leadership. How could a man become God? This is a question that I have been asked numerous times by my Jewish people. The answer is actually quite simple. A man cannot ever become God (that takes care of a lot of false religions by the way), but God can choose to become a man, and this is exactly what He did. The second person of the triune God took human form and came to us so that in His humanity, and only in His humanity, he could pay the price for all of our sins. He died in His humanity, and rose again because He is God as well, and God can never die (Isaiah 9:6-7.)

Saul of Tarsus understood that very well, and after Yeshua commissioned him to be the apostle to the gentiles, he boldly proclaimed the Gospel everywhere he went. Incidentally, recognizing the Jewish preeminence of the Gospel, he always started with the Jewish community everywhere he went (Romans 1:16, Acts 13:46; 14:1.) As a matter of fact, Paul shared the Gospel only from the Jewish Scriptures or Tanakh. How could he use anything else, since the New Testament was being written in his lifetime (Matthew 5:17; John 5:39; Luke 24:44-46.) The message of salvation is good news for all mankind, including the Jewish people. Using the Jewish section of our Bible known as the Tanakh to Jewish people and the Old Testament to Christians, it is straight forward and it’s all there, hiding in plain sight. It goes something like this:

Our Only Hope of Salvation is Yeshua the Messiah.
God loves mankind and wants to bless all. It is not and never was God’s intention to be separated from mankind. God is a God of relationships, and He wants nothing more than exercising this relationship with His creation: “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalm 16:11).
“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.” (Psalm 36:7-10)

Mankind is separated from God because of sin, which results in spiritual death.
Original Sin: “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17.)

Even despite this separation, God desires to have a relationship with man. Being the perfect and just God that He is, He is separated from us by our wrongdoings. The chasm is not insurmountable, but it does exist and requires a bridge.
Sin Nature: As the Bible makes clear, our sin has separated us from a possible relationship with God. The Bible also explains the punishment for our sins; that is, our trespasses. A punishment that is the same for all, Jews and Gentiles alike, if they indeed remain separated from God: “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).
“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine, the soul who sins will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
“But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.” (Jeremiah 31:30)
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so, that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

There is nothing man can do himself to be reconciled to God.
The Bible is very clear on this point as well; there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and be reconciled to God. Additionally, there is nothing that any man can do for us to reconcile us to God: “Although you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord God.” (Jeremiah 2:22)
“No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.” (Psalm 49:7)

God has provided us with a way to be reconciled to Him as a free gift through the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah.
But do not be discouraged! God loves us and He did provide a solution to what seems to be an unsolvable problem. God sent Yeshua the Messiah to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Messiah, whom the Scriptures teach is God in the flesh, died and atoned for our sins. We should pay particular attention to the Scripture from the prophet Isaiah who predicted the humiliation, suffering, death by crucifixion, resurrection and exaltation of the Messiah in Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12:“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:2-13)
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17:11)
“I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43:11)

Yeshua’s atoning death for our sins gives us salvation.
The problem barrier between God and us created by sin has been knocked down by Messiah’s selfless sacrifice on our behalf. It is our choice to accept this free gift by faith. “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)
“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4)

Only by repenting of our sins and accepting Yeshua’s death on our behalf can we be saved and reconciled to God. The solution is here and readily available for those who desire an eternal relationship with God. Only by repentance, as we voluntarily admit and turn away from our sins, can we be saved. Our faith, and only our faith in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah, can reconcile us to God. Yeshua bridged the gap between God and us. Our faith is our response to His gift: salvation for those who put their trust in Him: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:1-5)
“He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” (Proverbs 28:13)

Contrary to all man-made religions, our biblical faith in God is rather simple. We realize nothing we can do will reconcile us to God except to believe by faith in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah. For those who do not currently have this relationship with the living God and desire to establish it, they are only a prayer away from becoming a child of God. He is waiting! Anyone can pray right now to invite him to be the Lord of their life and change them into a new person? The prayer is so simple. It is not a magic formula, so each person can use their own words::

Dear God, I agree that I have done some wrong and I am separated from you. I desire a relationship with You, but I cannot do it on my own. I thank you for sending Yeshua the Messiah to die for me, and I accept His death and resurrection as a free gift. By faith I invite Yeshua into my heart and ask Him to be my Lord and Savior.

This is by far the most important decision that one can make for their own life. At the end of the day the question should never be, “Is the Gospel Jewish?” but “Is the Gospel the true message of salvation?” The Gospel does change you, but not from a Jew to a Gentile or a Gentile to a Jew. The Gospel changes your destination. I made that decision 37 years ago, and the re-routing was well worth it!

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