God

May 8, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

What are the Covenants, and are they really important to us?

When you build a house, you would never think of placing it on any kind of ground without a foundation. Obviously, any edifice that has stood the test of time has been built on a solid and steady foundation. Why should it be any different with the Word of God? If the Bible is true, and it is, it is dangerous to study it without a proper foundation. We can easily let our fingers wander on the pages of God’s counsel, not knowing where to rest or on what to safely stand. The result can be a shaky faith, a wrong faith, or no faith at all. So, how do we establish the firm foundation needed to support the building of our faith that will lead to our serving God and growing closer to Him? The answer starts with a proper understanding of the covenants of God.

A covenant is an agreement between several parties (usually two). It is a contract that obligates the parties signing it to adhere to its various stipulations. In a way, it creates boundaries and specific rules. If one of the parties breaks the covenant, the other party is no longer bound by it. Biblical covenants exist to do just that, they establish a specific relationship between God and those He chooses to ratify the covenants with. They also contain promises usually based on the adherence to the covenant, but not always by all parties. A proper understanding of the Covenants of God will help alleviate false theological positions such as Replacement Theology, Dual Covenant Theology, and Christian Palestinianism. The understanding of the covenants will also help us fight antisemitism.

There are eight covenants in the Bible: The Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Land, Davidic and New covenants. Some are there as a contract between God and mankind in general and others are there as a contract between God and Israel and the Jewish People in particular. The distinction is important to note. Some of the covenants are also connected to one another throughout mankind’s history.

Another critical aspect of these covenants is the fact that they can be conditional or unconditional. A conditional covenant is when God says to the other party, “if you will, then I will”. There is an expectation from God on the other party. God’s fulfilling His part–whatever it might be–depends on the other party fulfilling their part, which usually had something to do with obedience. An unconditional covenant is one where God simply says, “I will”. The contract exists between God and the other party, but its fulfillment depends only on God doing His part. In other words, an unconditional covenant is tightly connected to God’s character. Let’s review them one at a time. They are the necessary building blocks upon which we build our understanding and proper application of God’s Word in our lives. As we understand them, we will discover that they also are a guarantee from God to Israel and the whole world.

The Edenic Covenant: Between God and Adam (Representative of mankind) – Conditional and Temporary
The Edenic Covenant was ratified between God and Adam as a representative of mankind (Genesis 1:28-31). It was conditional, depending upon Adam and Eve’s obedience regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17): “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 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 will surely die.” As the story tells us in Genesis 3:1-8, Adam and Eve disobeyed as they followed the serpent’s temptation, and the first sin of mankind was committed. The rest is history, or should I say HIS story? Hosea 6:7 tells us, “But like Adam, they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.” The Edenic Covenant was short-lived and replaced by the Adamic Covenant.
The Adamic Covenant: Between God and Adam (Representative of mankind) – Unconditional and Eternal
The Adamic Covenant was made necessary as a result of the breaking of the Edenic Covenant. It shows how God dealt with the three guilty parties in the Edenic Covenant (Genesis 3:14-19). To the serpent (Satan), “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat All the days of your life.” It is also in this passage that we read the very first messianic prophecy (Genesis 3:15) telling us of the animosity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Messiah).
God also punished the woman, “To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” and the man as well: Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. The Adamic Covenant is still very much in effect today.
The Noahic Covenant: Between God and Noah (Representative of mankind) – Unconditional and Eternal
The Noahic Covenant was ratified between God and Noah/Mankind (Genesis 9:1-17), “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” From Noah forward, meat consumption (without blood) is introduced. The sign of that covenant with mankind is the rainbow. As a result of the flood (which was never to occur again per God’s word to Noah), all humanity descended from Adam through Noah and his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Capital punishment is also introduced at this time in history. The Noahic Covenant is also very much in effect today.

The next five covenants are all between God and the Jewish people and are all unconditional and eternal except for the Mosaic Covenant, which was conditional and temporary.

The Abrahamic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Abrahamic Covenant might be the most important Biblical covenant with the New Covenant. Failure to understand the Abrahamic Covenant, its parties and its provisions have led people to adopt faulty views such as Replacement Theology and Dual Covenant Theology. God started with a promise to Abram found in Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This is where the well-known promise of blessings for blessing Israel and the Jewish people and curses for cursing them appears. Additionally, in Genesis 15:17-21, where the actual covenant is ratified, we learn that only the Shechinah Glory of God passed through the split animals. It was only God who needed to ratify the covenant. While Abraham symbolically represents the Jewish People in this covenant, only God needed to walk through to ratify it; thus, making it impossible for Abraham or the Jewish people to break the covenant. This also makes the covenant both unconditional AND eternal. Furthermore, in that passage, God gives us the exact boundaries of Israel, “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring, I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Based on that passage, Biblical Israel should be about twice the size of Texas while it is currently about the size of New Jersey. Never in human history have these exact boundaries been fulfilled, but they will be during the millennial reign of Yeshua on earth from Jerusalem after the seven-year Tribulation. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that the land is not for the Jewish people, nowhere does it tell us it is Palestine, and nowhere does it tell us that it has been transferred to another people group. While it would seem this is simply rewriting biblical history, it’s actually rewriting scripture and Israel and the Jewish People’s past, present and future. This kind of “editing” makes God into a liar and covenant breaker. It is nothing short of Biblical history revisionism and it makes God into a liar and a covenant breaker. Notice that it is only the covenant between God and the Jewish people that some want to alter? The other covenants that God has with mankind, in general, are usually not an issue. The Abrahamic Covenant is also the foundation for the development of three other important covenants. The Land (Land), Davidic (Seed) and New (Blessing) Covenants. Additionally, the Abrahamic Covenant is reconfirmed through Isaac in Genesis 26:24, and through Jacob in Genesis 28:13-15; and again, through all of Jacob’s twelve sons in Genesis 49. The Abrahamic Covenant is still in effect today even though some of its provisions will not go into effect until the Millennial Kingdom.
The Mosaic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Conditional and Temporary
The Mosaic Covenant is the only covenant that God made with the Jewish people that is conditional. Blessings hinge around the keeping of the Mosaic Law given to Moses at Sinai, not the 10 commandments written on tablets of stone, but the 613 mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah given to the children of Israel that span from Exodus 20:1 to Deuteronomy 28:68. A clear understanding of the blessings and curses attached to the Mosaic Covenant can be read in Deuteronomy 28, which is probably one of the clearest passages of the Torah where God tells Israel that He means business. One of the key elements of the Mosaic Law is the blood sacrifice as found in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” Additionally, dietary restrictions (Biblical kosher laws) were introduced for Jewish people that didn’t exist for all making under the Noahic Covenant. The Sabbath was also formally introduced under this covenant. We must not forget that the Mosaic Law’s purpose was to show Israel that God’s idea of holiness cannot be attained by man, and thus the need for a redeemer to forgive our sins. It came to an end with the death of the Messiah (Romans 10:4; Ephesians 2:11-18).
The Land Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Land Covenant used to be called the Palestinian Covenant, but since the word “Palestine” has been hijacked for political gain in the Middle East at the expense of Israel, it is better to call it the Land Covenant. We read about it in Deuteronomy 29:1, “These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.” This describes a Covenant different from the Mosaic Covenant. Some of its provisions are listed in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. The Land Covenant is especially important because it reaffirms that the title deed was given by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It also confirms that that deed was given to Israel unconditionally and was promised based on God’s character and never on Israel’s performance. In a sense, it further develops the land aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Bible promises a future restoration of Israel and the Jewish people into the Land. Ezekiel spoke of the return of the Jewish people to Israel in the last days and we can certainly say that we are living through that time right now. The Land Covenant is still in effect today.
The Davidic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Davidic Covenant is another development from the Abrahamic Covenant as it pertains to the seed aspect. From that perspective, the Davidic king that the Covenant introduces is really a descendant of King David, namely King Messiah Himself, Yeshua of Nazareth. We read about it in I Chronicles 17:10-14, “Moreover, I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house. When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” The Covenant was made between God and King David who was promised an eternal dynasty (II Samuel 7:11, 16) and his kingdom would be established forever (II Samuel 7:13) and the Messiah would come from the seed of David (I Chronicles 17:11); and that finally, Messiah’s throne, house and kingdom will be established forever (I Chronicles 17:12-15). It is also an unconditional covenant and is still in effect today.
The New Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The New Covenant is primarily found in Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” It was made between God and both the House of Israel and the House of Judah or all Israel (Jeremiah 31:31). And is clearly distinct from the Mosaic Covenant (Jeremiah 31:32) and it promises that Israel will be regenerated (Jeremiah 31:33) and their sins remembered no more (Jeremiah 31:34). The New Covenant contains the Law of Messiah (Romans 8:2; Galatians 6:2.) with many of the same commandments repeated, some annulled and some amplified by Messiah. The New Covenant develops the blessing aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, particularly as it pertains to salvation. Many have tried to view the New Covenant allegorically and thus transfer it to the Church, but it was never so, if you take God’s Word literally. This would make the Christians the new recipients of the blessings as the new owners, but Scripture goes as far as describing Gentile Christians as partakers of the blessings, but never new owners. It is made clear in Romans 11:17-18, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” The Church is reaping the spiritual blessings of these covenants while Israel alone gets to benefit from the physical blessings such as the land.

Much more could be said about the eight covenants of the Bible. Their proper study and application will help believers find their place in God’s program for the ages. Just like nobody would dare build a house with no foundation or put the third floor up before the second floor, we ought to understand the place of the covenants in God’s program, the proper recipients of the covenants, if they are eternal or temporary, and if they are conditional or unconditional. Anything less cripples our ability to properly understand God’s counsel. In essence, the eight covenants of the Bible form the blueprints for God’s program for mankind.

April 29, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Where Was God During the Holocaust?

One of the most asked questions by Jewish people, when we discuss spiritual matters, is: “Where was God during the Holocaust”? This is a valid question that many have asked and very few if any have attempted to answer. In his seminal autobiographical work titled “Night”, Elie Wiesel addresses that question in his own way. After witnessing the hanging of a young child, he wrote: “I heard someone groan: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where is He? This is where – hanging here from these gallows.'”

Furthermore, Wiesel wrote about his experience: “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never!”

In his foreword to the 1958 1st Edition of NIGHT, French novelist FRANÇOIS MAURIAC wrote: “And I, who believe that God is love, what answer was there to give my young interlocutor whose dark eyes still held the reflection of the angelic sadness that had appeared one day on the face of a hanged child? What did I say to him? Did I speak to him of that other Jew, this crucified brother who perhaps resembled him and whose cross conquered the world? Did I explain to him that what had been a stumbling block to his faith had become a cornerstone for mine? And that the connection between the cross and human suffering remains, in my view, the key to the unfathomable mystery in which the faith of his childhood was lost? And yet, Zion has risen up again out of the crematoria and the slaughterhouses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from among its thousands of dead. It is they who have given it new life. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear. All is grace. If the Almighty is the Almighty, the last word for each of us belongs to Him. THAT IS WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID TO THE JEWISH CHILD BUT ALL I COULD DO WAS EMBRACE HIM AND WEEP.”

Again, as far as Wiesel and Mauriac went in their understanding and explanation of the Holocaust–they as we all do-fell short of grasping the depth of that tragedy. It is not uncommon to speak of Jewish history before and after Auschwitz, as the Holocaust left a scar on the Jewish people and guilt on mankind that could never be eradicated or understood, and yet, God if He didn’t cause it–and He certainly didn’t–allowed it to take place. Some of the possible reasons men have developed for the Holocaust revolve around God’s character and are worth investigating. This is based on an acceptance of the Tanach as God’s inspired, inerrant Word.

• God’s Omnipotence
Does the Tanach teach that God is omnipotent (all-powerful)? If He is not, maybe He wanted to stop the Holocaust, but the forces of evil were greater and more powerful, and as a result, the Holocaust went on. Scripture helps us to understand the omnipotence of God:
Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.
1 Chronicles 29:11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.
Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,
Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.

As it would appear, God is indeed omnipotent. So, the Holocaust was not beyond His reach. As a matter of fact, it did come to an end and it is believed that had Hitler not committed suicide, Nazi Germany would have acquired the atomic bomb within six months. Just imagine the carnage that would have followed. God could and did stop it, but that still doesn’t bring solace to the families of the six million innocent victims.

• God’s Omniscience
Maybe God is all-powerful, but He is not all-knowing. So, there is nothing that He cannot do, as long as He is aware of the issue. If He is indeed not all-knowing, maybe the Holocaust caught Him by surprise and only after a few years of the most horrific carnage, He decided to put an end to it. What kind of God would we worship if He didn’t have all the knowledge of the universe since we believe that He created the universe? Again, the Tanach sheds some light on that topic:
1 Chronicles 28:9a As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
Psalm 147:4 He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.
Job 28:24 “For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

As it would appear, God is also omniscient. So, the Holocaust didn’t catch Him by surprise. He knew about it from before the beginning of time, but that still doesn’t bring solace to the families of the six million innocent victims.

• God’s Lovingkindness
Our loving God might not be so loving after all. Maybe He decided to punish Israel for rebellion and disobedience based on Deuteronomy 28. If God was to destroy all Israel for disobedience, He had numerous opportunities before the 1930s and 40s. Is His love unconditional? Let’s look at His Word for answers.
Psalm 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
Isaiah 54:10 “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the Lord who has compassion on you.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 “Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the LORD.

Again, God’s Word confirms to us that He is all-loving and compassionate, and this, based on His promises and covenants with Israel, but that still doesn’t bring solace to the families of the six million innocent victims.

• God’s Perfection
Maybe God is flawed. Maybe He is not perfect. Who would want a relationship with a God who is not perfect? What does His Word tell us about His perfection and holiness?
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.
Psalm 18:30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

God is perfect and holy in every way possible, but that still doesn’t bring solace to the families of the six million innocent victims.

So, to the unanswered question “Where was God during the Holocaust?”. We who hold His Word to be inspired and without error, might not have a solid answer. Nevertheless, we proclaim that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving and perfect. God might have not been a reality to those who suffered the horrors of the Holocaust, but he was not dead. We could call it an “eclipse of God”, like a real presence without any visibility or tangible proof. His Word tells of His suffering on behalf of His chosen people in Isaiah. This is a very encouraging verse that I often revisit:

Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.

God suffered along with His people during the pogroms, in the ghettos and through the death camps’ ordeals. This is not the only time we witness God’s presence with the Jewish people during their suffering. We can also read about how jealous God was for Jerusalem in Zechariah 1:7-17.

Upon reflection on the topic of the Holocaust, should we ask the question “Where was God?” or “Where was man?” Our unchangeable, almighty creator was always there, but man somehow was allowed to make choices that led to the systematic death of the six million. We should never hold God responsible for what men did to other men! In the meantime, maybe all we can do to show the love of Messiah is follow the advice of François Mauriac and embrace those who have suffered a loss in the Holocaust.

April 26, 2021 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Do Jewish Lives Matter only in Theory?

If 2020 was the year of Covid-19, it was also the year of the US race riots. The tragic death of George Floyd is still having ripple effects in America, and the motto “Black Lives Matter” continues to be seen and heard across the land. It is not my intention to debate the various ways that this motto has been used, suffice it to say that there exists a certain amount of racial inequality in America that needs to be addressed if we desire to move towards solving it. Being a Bible believer and modern-day follower of Yeshua the Messiah, I believe that “All Lives Matter” to God and should matter to us as well.

The African American community has been at the forefront of the news for the past year; and while much remains to be accomplished, voices are heard and opinions are formed and even altered for the better. It’s all good, but unfortunately, it is not equally good for all people. I am devastated by the recent news out of France regarding the trial of a man who murdered an innocent Jewish woman. All seems to indicate that in France–and possibly other countries–Jewish lives do not matter. Let me elaborate.

On April 4, 2017, 65-year-old Sarah Halimi, a retired doctor, was tortured by her neighbor Kobili Traoré, and then thrown to her death from the window of her third-floor apartment. Traoré committed this murder while reciting verses from the Qur’an and calling Sarah Halimi a “dirty Jew”. Upon throwing her through the window, Traoré shouted in Arabic that he had succeeded in killing an evil spirit or “killed the Satan”.

When questioned, Traoré declared that he felt “persecuted”, and after realizing that he was high on marijuana, the French justice system decided that he would not stand trial. That decision basically sent the message that anyone’s voluntary drug consumption exonerates them from any responsibility. Traoré was officially acquitted in April 2021 and is literally getting away with murder, while the global media is – for the most part – completely ignoring this story.
France continues to be a very secular country and authorities don’t like to report acts of antisemitism. This doesn’t stop people from reporting them, but since not much gets done to remediate the problem, many of these acts remain unreported at worst or wrongly reported at best.

It is also shameful that much of the media in France and in the USA decide to remain silent on the fact that Traoré will walk free after killing a Jewish woman. Islamic antisemitism is a very touchy subject in France. They only started to report the news after the decision to let Traoré walk free and when the Jewish community started to protest in large numbers. It looks like a reaction to a protest that couldn’t be ignored rather than honest reporting about a murder that went unpunished. Within a few days of the acquittal, a police officer in the city of Rambouillet near Paris was stabbed to death by a Tunisian man. The news in France, Europe and the United States were all over it within hours. The death of that police officer was a tragedy indeed, leaving a father and two children behind. Its reporting was necessary, but when I compare the two events and how one was ignored, I cannot help but think that there is a double standard being applied here. What a shame!

Traoré’s exoneration sets an extremely dangerous legal precedent in France and the rest of the world. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the Jewish community has his full support. What did he mean by that? Were these empty words to save face? It is not the first time that Jewish people have been killed in France in recent years. What about the multiple stabbing of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in 2018, left to die in her burning apartment? Of course, we all remember the kosher supermarket carnage of January 2015 when four Jewish shoppers were murdered. That was six years ago! The site of the tragedy–just a stone’s throw from the house I grew up in– continues to see flowers and photos brought in memory of the victims, that’s very thoughtful, but you cannot fight terrorism and antisemitism with flowers, photos and poems.

Before that, there was the 2012 Toulouse massacre, when Mohammed Merah entered a Jewish day school and killed three students and a rabbi in cold blood. What about 2006, when Ilan Halimi (no relation to Sarah Halimi), was tortured, burned over most of his body and then thrown beside railroad tracks to die? Not to mention the killing of Jewish people that occurred in other parts of the world such as the Pittsburgh synagogue and the San Diego attack of recent years.

Back to the Sarah Halimi case. The man who killed her didn’t just kill her. He insulted her, killed her and then threw her out her apartment window. This shows much more than killing for whatever motive, it shows violent, uncontrollable hatred. We are told that because he was high on cannabis, he was not acting rationally because of being in some sort of altered state. The problem I have with that is that whenever someone is under the influence of any mind-altering substance, it doesn’t just alter their behavior, it may also enhance the tendencies that lie dormant within them. Whatever control that person may have while sober may not be controlled while under the influence. To say that Kolibi Traoré cannot be held guilty of murder because of cannabis in his system is wrong, but to decide to not even go on with a trial is adding insult to injury. Even if murder is off the table–and it shouldn’t be–manslaughter would be the absolute minimum charge. Doesn’t that endanger Jewish lives elsewhere once someone is seen to be not responsible for their actions because of a drug or alcohol?

I can promise you that if the victim(s) had been from the Muslim faith, the case would have not been swept under the rug. If the victim was a Muslim thrown out the window by a Jew, the Imams would be all over the case and the news would have exploded with the details shouting “Islamophobia” from the social networks’ rooftops. For Jewish victims…Not so much! Let me reiterate that all lives matter: Jewish, Muslim, Christian or atheists, but why is this case of murder ignored and the perpetrator exonerated of any responsibility? What a slap in the face of the Jewish community, and not just in France. This will probably be seen as a go-ahead for violence against Jews elsewhere.

It would appear that the lives of Jewish people are not worth much. Incidentally, France is a country where people will get one year in prison if they throw their dog out the window. So, is the life of a dog worth more than the life of a Jewish person? It would appear so!

This can only encourage antisemites to perpetrate more crimes against Jews as they see that their actions if noticed AND if reported properly, might not even garner any punishment. Justice is usually served, but maybe not for Jews, after all. At least not for the foreseeable future in France. This is despicable and very scary for the Jewish community of France. That community already doesn’t report all antisemitic acts because very little if anything gets done when they do. Sometimes Jews even get accused of playing “the victim card” or calling any disagreement with the Jewish community “antisemitism.” There might have been some abuse in that area, but throwing a Jewish woman through her third-floor window screaming “Allahu Akbar” and “I have killed the Satan” is antisemitism without a doubt. So, do Jewish lives matter? Well, it certainly looks like they don’t in France.

In every situation, there are always going to be the perpetrators, the victims and the bystanders. In the case of Sarah Halimi (the victim) and Kolibi Traoré (the perpetrator), inevitably, there are some bystanders. People who are not Jewish, people who fear Islamic extremism’s repercussions and people guilty of “soft antisemitism” who wouldn’t kill Jewish people, but certainly don’t care if someone else does.
If you don’t see the beginning wave of a repeat of history in Europe, you are not really paying attention. The last time a Jewish life was worth nothing, we let an evil man and his cohorts decimate six million Jews in the most horrific, systematic way possible.

The never-ending scapegoating of the Jews and bloody massacres against them will not stop until Messiah brings peace to the world. That day will come soon at the Second Coming of Yeshua of Nazareth. Some people say that since we cannot stop evil, we should just pray for God to intervene, and He might very soon. After all, if Hitler had not committed suicide, who knows how many more Jews would have perished at the hand of the Nazis. It is believed that Germany would have acquired the atomic bomb within six months after he died. Imagine the damage inflicted if that would have taken place.

So, yes God is absolutely in control, but He works through people. Not because He needs our help to fulfill His program, but because He wants to give us opportunities to bless and be blessed. Don’t be a bystander, be a lending hand, be a helper, be a blesser and be blessed as you do your part in reassuring the Jewish community that Jewish lives do matter! In the meantime, don’t be surprised if French Jews start making Aliyah in droves again. After all, didn’t France just throw them under the bus?

In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
(Isaiah 63:9)

April 9, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

What Everybody Is Missing in Their Definition of Antisemitism!

I have been studying, teaching against and writing about antisemitism for almost 22 years. It has become a fight that I cannot abandon, for the sake of my people. It didn’t come naturally to me. For the first forty years of my life, my frustrations and fears related to the longest hatred were somewhat suppressed. I particularly remember growing in France and hearing my parents rehash memories of the war, the Holocaust and how much the world hated us. My mother in particular, always told me that when I was making new friends at school, I should tell them that we are Jewish so that there wouldn’t be any late “surprises.” It always rubbed me the wrong way, but I was oblivious to the fact that my mother saw her dad taken by the Gestapo when she was 16 to only learn much later that he died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. I now understand this scarred her deeply, and it was a scar she bore until her very last day on this earth.

Then, in 1999, I started to gather data on the resurgence of antisemitism for a research paper while I was working on a degree. Twenty-one years later, I am still gathering data, and teaching in churches and conferences on that very topic more than ever. My research gave birth to three books on the topic, and, sad to say, antisemitism doesn’t show any sign of stopping. As a matter of fact, there isn’t one week when I do not have something to report or write about.

Early on, I felt it was necessary to define antisemitism. Not that it had never been done before, but since it has been morphing over the years, it really needs to be fine-tuned. I found many definitions that I felt were adequate, and for a while, I adopted the one from Edward H. Flannery from the classic volume The Anguish of the Jews. His definition is “Antisemitism is attitudes, words or actions that embody a hatred or contempt of the Jewish people as such.” Frankly, no definition is flawless, especially when it comes to explaining a hatred against the Jews that has lasted millennia.

Eventually, I developed my own, which was close to that of Edward Flannery. For close to a decade, I defined antisemitism as “Antisemitism is the hatred of the Jewish people, characterized by thoughts, words or deeds against them.” I felt that it was important that if someone simply had negative, denigrating, or destructive thoughts about the Jews, that it had to be labeled as antisemitism. Their thoughts might never evolve to words or deeds but could easily be the soil in which more active Jew-hatred could grow.

As I continued to study and gather data, I started to realize that my definition was missing something. I noticed that more and more antisemitic acts were committed by people joining forces against Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people globally. The odd aspect of this team effort was that some of these people working together to ostracize and demonize the Jews would never agree on anything ideologically if it were not for their common hatred of the Jewish people. The adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” was really coming to life. How could we possibly imagine Liberals agreeing with radical Islamists, except of course if it is about the need to stop the Jews from “taking over the banks or the world.”

So, I saw the need to add one word to my definition. The needed word was “irrational” as in the “irrational hatred” of the Jewish people. It is irrational on two levels. First, because it joins different groups of people who ideologically would never even think of teaming up, but also because what the world is believing about the Jews and Israel increasingly becomes more irrational each day that passes. Thus, I revised my definition to read “Antisemitism is the irrational hatred of the Jewish people, characterized by thoughts, words or deeds against them.”

How else could people in 2021 still believe the lies about Jewish people using blood to make Passover matzah? Who can still believe that Jewish people need to kill Christian babies during Holy week? Who can still read the now-debunked 1904 hoax The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and believe it to be a true plan to take over the world by a Jewish cabal? What about the medieval Black plague supposedly started by the Jews poisoning the wells of Europe, which logically (read “irrationally”) makes them instant prime suspects for the creating and spreading of COVID-19? More people than you think, across the globe, are still buying into those irrational lies. All these lies are vivid illustrations of the irrationality of the “New” antisemitism. It is not new as in “better”, rather it is new as in “morphed” into something more dangerous and more acceptable to the many who do not check facts.

A bit after I felt the need to adjust my definition, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance came up with their own definition of antisemitism in 2016. They posit that “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” In order to help people to understand and adopt that new definition, the IHRA added eleven bullet point items to further define what they meant, and they still call their definition a “non-legally binding working” definition. While I agree with that definition, I find it a bit vague, which explains the need for all the subpoints and examples. I strongly believe that it lacks the irrational component that became evident to me within the last decade.

Then, in the first quarter of 2020, a new group of scholars in antisemitism studies and related fields got together and penned the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA). They have over 200 signatories. Their definition goes like this, “Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).” I like the fact that they identify antisemitism as animosity against “Jews as Jews” which is similar to Edward Flannery’s definition of “contempt of the Jewish people as such.” It reinforces the idea that antisemitism makes no sense at all.

While I will not pretend to be familiar with all the signatories of the JDA, I cannot agree with some of their conclusions, especially point 14 of their guidelines (longer than those of the IHRA). It states that “Boycott, divestment and sanctions are commonplace, non-violent forms of political protest against states. In the Israeli case, they are not, in and of themselves, antisemitic.” While I am not against the ethical use of boycott, divestment and sanctions, the BDS movement against Israel and the Jewish people is anything but ethical. It only targets Israel and Israeli products and corporations when there are many countries that commit crimes against humanity and are completely ignored. The sole targeting of Israel justified by fabricated stories shows the hypocrisy of such a movement. Not to mention all the Israeli products and inventions that BDS proponents use daily, turning a blind eye on the “Jewish Apartheid State” out of convenience. I cannot agree with a definition that doesn’t see BDS as antisemitic.

All these definitions, good and bad are lacking a key component that must be seen as the root of antisemitism, and that is the spiritual element. I don’t expect everyone to believe in God or even have any spiritual leanings, but I believe that without the spiritual component, antisemitism cannot be fully understood, and even less combated.

There is no doubt in my mind that Satan is at the core of antisemitism. For those who don’t believe that Satan exists, this will make my argument difficult to accept but bear with me.

From the moment he got involved with humanity Satan showed his true colors. He is THE deceiver who hates all that God loves and loves all that God hates. It might come as surprise to many, but Satan knows the Bible very well. He knows the past, tries to alter the present and is also aware of his future. He also understands how much God loves Israel, the unconditional eternal covenants He ratified with the Jewish people (Genesis 12:1-3) and the promises He made to never destroy or forsake Israel (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

Moreover, Satan is aware that the Second Coming of Yeshua depends upon Israel’s repentance and cry for Him to return as He promised in Matthew 23:37-39. He will come back when Israel cries out Baruch Haba Bashem Adonai, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” As prophesied in Zechariah 12:10. At that moment begins the end of Satan’s career of deception and lies on earth. His final abode is the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for eternity, not as its boss like Hollywood would like you to believe but as one of the first ones thrown in for eternal torment with no hope of relief.

Satan has been instrumental in rewriting history and promoting irrational antisemitism for as long as Jewish people have existed. He also knows that he cannot rewrite the future. His destiny is set in stone, but he will do anything he can to postpone it. If he could prevent the Jewish people from recognizing Yeshua of Nazareth as their Messiah, which he thinks would buy him some time; and that is exactly why he invented antisemitism. For centuries, antisemitism has been infiltrating the Christian Church on many levels.

To be sure, antisemitism is not only coming from the Church. It is coming from the extreme Left, the extreme Right, radical Islam, atheists, Hollywood, academia, the media, politics and more, which all reinforce the irrationality of antisemitism. Who else but the Jews has ever been accuse of both Communism and Capitalism?

Finally, when one sees the spiritual component of antisemitism, it should make it clear we need to pray for it to cease. We might never be able to completely erase the irrational hatred of my Jewish people, but once we recognize its source, it is critical for us to pray against it – while educating people about it. Scripture also tells me to love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me (Matthew 5:46), and I believe in the power of prayer. Somehow, this has been the focus of my past 22 years. I have a feeling that it will continue to be the focus for the next 22, if the Lord tarries.

Incidentally, on April 8, 2021, Israel commemorated Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) with a country-wide coming to a stop at 10:00 AM for two minutes of silence. Because my grandfather didn’t die in vain, I remember and speak up. May his memory and that of the six-million be a blessing!

April 1, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Jesus the Palestinian…Really?

Saying that Yeshua (Jesus) was one of the most controversial figures of all time is not an exaggeration. He was a revolutionary, a rebel and a rabbi. His existence is seldom put into question by anyone, even those who don’t believe in God. Another aspect of Yeshua that until recently was never argued was His human origin. He was born of human parents–a human mother to be exact, and an adoptive father. His ethnicity is also a slam dunk. Since His mother was Jewish, He was Jewish. Well, I wish it was that simple, but unfortunately, He has recently been painted as a Palestinian. Let us look at how and why such a claim is made and if there is any validity to it.

First, let me start by defining the meaning of Palestine. While the exact origin of the name “Palestine” is still debated, there are aspects of the word’s meaning that we can know for sure. It once possibly described a people group known as the Philistines, but that people group was in no way connected to the current era Palestinians – not ethnically, not linguistically, not historically and not culturally. In A.D. 132, the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt took place against the Romans. Things didn’t end well for the Jewish people; and in addition to a bloodbath of gigantic proportions, Israel was renamed Palaestina by the Romans. The rebranding of the land with the name of their enemies, the Philistines, was an effort to undermine Jewish history and humiliate the Jewish people further. Jerusalem was also renamed Aelia Capitolina by emperor Hadrian. The name Palestine stuck and continued to be used after that time. It is nowhere to be found in the Bible.

When the British were in control from 1922 to 1948, the area was governed under what was known as the British Palestine Mandate. In the original text of the Mandate itself, dated 1922, we can read: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

We should not have an issue calling Israel “Palestine” as long as it is a description of the landmass of Israel prior to 1948. Up to that time in history, the term “Palestine” simply described a piece of land in the Middle East. Even after Israel became a State in 1948 and the name Eretz Yisrael started being used, the word “Palestine” was not an issue for anybody; it was more or less an outdated name for the land of Eretz Yisrael. It is after that time, and under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, that the definition for Palestine went from geographical to political, in an attempt to describe a displaced people group named “the Palestinians”, in need of an “ancestral” homeland. Before the 1960s, historical documents were replete with descriptions of Israel as Palestine, such as the British Palestine Mandate already mentioned. Israeli stamps, coins and newspaper said “Palestine”, and nobody cared. Palestine was always synonymous with Israel, the Jewish State. Arabs in neighboring countries never called themselves Palestinians, but rather Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc. Most Arabs in the early 1900s would have argued that Palestinian Arabs were simply Syrians as Mitchell Bard documents in his well-researched book Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He writes: “Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.”

God used different names for the Land of Israel such as “The Land of Canaan” (Genesis 17:8), “The Promised Land” (Genesis 50:24), or even “The Land” (Exodus 6:8), nowhere in the Bible is Israel ever called Palestine even once. Even the Qur’an (Sura Maida 5:21-22) mentions the “Holy Land” in the context of Moses and the spies preparing to enter the Land of Canaan; but never does it call it Palestine. Jerusalem isn’t even mentioned by name in the Qur’an.

Today, nobody questions the etymology of the word “Palestine” and that is a shame. What is really sad, is that the Arab refugees who were forced by their own countries to remain in Israel post-1948 ended up having children who then had children. These innocent subsequent generations have been labeled “Palestinians” for political gain. They are real people who deserve a real home and a decent life. Backtracking to pre-1948 “Palestine” would connect them all with one or another of the neighboring Arab countries, but that doesn’t serve the current antisemitic agenda of Israeli occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing, does it?

This would be bad if it stopped there, but it doesn’t. To garner more support from Christians who might not check the accuracy of what they are told, there is now a movement to paint Yeshua as a Palestinian and not a Jew. This is part of what can be called Christian Palestinianism.

In his book For Zion Sake, Dr. Paul Wilkinson writes about the grave danger posed by Christian Palestinianism: “Christian Palestinianism is an inverted mirror image of Christian Zionism. All the basic elements of a Christian Zionist eschatology are reversed so that the Bible is seen to be Christian, not Jewish, the land of the Bible is Palestine, not Israel, the son of God is a Palestinian, not a Jew, the Holocaust is resented not remembered, 1948 is a catastrophe, not a miracle, the Jewish people are illegal occupiers, not rightful owners, and biblical prophecy is a moral manifesto and not a signpost to the Second Coming.”

To some, this might sound like an exaggeration that nobody will take seriously. I wish it were true, but there are groups of Christians who actually buy into that lie. Such a group is SABEEL. While I honestly understand the desire of such a group to minister to Arab Christians, I strongly disagree for it to be done at the expense of historical truth. Another venue where “reconciliation” between Jews and Arabs who believe in Yeshua is claimed, is Christ at the Checkpoint. That venue seems to preach a reconciliation that looks a lot like a one-way street towards complying with antisemitism and Christian Palestinianism.

Additionally, Yeshua was born in Bethlehem, Judea (Micah 5:2), not Bethlehem, Palestine, and it would be another 700 years before Arabs would get to the Promised Land and invade it. At the time of His crucifixion, Yeshua had a sign nailed above His head that read, Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm meaning “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews” in Latin. It never said King of the Palestinians.

Victimhood and social justice go hand in hand, and if we can lead some people to believe that the Messiah was a Palestinian, it would go a long way to help further the myopic Palestinian agenda. To that end, in 2013, Mahmoud Abbas declared in a Christmas message that “Jesus was a Palestinian messenger who would become a guiding light for millions.” Linda Sarsour, who describes herself as a Palestinian-Muslim-American, tweeted in 2009 that Jesus was a Palestinian from Nazareth. It is important to note that neither Abbas nor Sarsour cares about what Yeshua represents as they both claim to be Muslims. Even if Yeshua is mentioned in the Qur’an, He is never recognized as Messiah. Fortunately for them, from a public relations standpoint, “Jesus the Palestinian” sells well!

It doesn’t help when UNESCO decides to call the Temple Mount only by its Muslim name. So, the Kotel or western wall is called al-Buraq wall, and the area in front of it the al-Buraq plaza. It is also claimed that the Al-Aqsa mosque on top of the Temple Mount is the mosque that is referred to in the Qur’an (17:1). There it talks of a journey Muhammad made at night from the Sacred Mosque (Mecca) to the “Farthest Mosque”. Muslim scholars have later identified “The Farthest Mosque” with Jerusalem, but there was no mosque in Jerusalem at that time. Additionally, the al-masjid Al-Aqsa mosque was built in AD 705, which happens to be 73 years after the death of Muhammad. Here we have a historical anachronism conveniently ignored.

Setting the record straight from the Jewish Bible, Yeshua is from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob who was not a Palestinian. Yeshua is from the line of King David, one of Israel’s most famous biblical kings (2 Samuel 7:14). David was never called the king of Palestine. Yeshua was born in Bethlehem, Judea (Micah 5:2), long before the world bought into the concept of the “occupied territories” that I prefer to call the “disputed territories”. Yeshua was also to be a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), and Moses was not a Palestinian prophet. Yeshua was also circumcised (Luke 2:21) on the eighth day, per Jewish law (Exodus 12:48; Leviticus 12:2-3).

History, geography and archeology all testify to the Jewishness of Yeshua. Anyone trying to cancel his Jewish roots is ignoring it all and is guilty of historical revisionism. Unfortunately, in the age of canceling anything and anyone that might be offensive to the current politically correct agenda, making Yeshua into a Palestinian doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Calling Him a Palestinian will not change who He was and who He continues to be. It will only lead people astray from the true Yeshua and His simple message of redemption and salvation, as well as encourage anti-Semites to further cancel anything Jewish in order to ostracize and demonize our people.

By the way, I have often received criticism from my own Jewish people for being a follower of Yeshua, but NEVER because He was a Palestinian. Just sayin’!

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