Never Again

I have just finished reading the article in our local newspaper about community leaders rallying to aid the victim of an anti-Semitic hate crime which happened here in Franklin Twp. a few weeks ago.
First and foremost, I would like to say that my heart goes out to this person in our community who has been hurt by this ugly act. The person or people responsible for this crime are cowards. In fact, they are no better than the murderers whom slammed passenger jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon nine years ago on September 11th. Like those terrorists who killed thousands of people that day, their prime motivation for spraying the Swastika is hatred. I hope whoever did this is eventually caught and punished. Perhaps losing their freedom will motivate them to a change of heart.
Acts of anti-Semitism on a far worse scale are happening all over Europe at this time, with the desecration and burning of synagogues and assaults on Jews, both verbal and physical, in the streets of cities like Paris and Rome. These attacks are becoming more and more frequent, particularly in countries where there has been a large influx of Arab Muslim immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East over the past ten years. In Israel, an Arab leader known as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheik Mohammad Hussein, recently declared that there is a coming religious war or Jihad, against the Jews. Meanwhile, the western news media apparently has it’s head buried in the sand, providing little or no coverage of this man’s threats, or of the growing crisis in Europe against the Jewish population there.
The main sentiment expressed in the aftermath of the Holocaust was “never again”. Prior to the rise of Nazi Germany, the ovens in Auschwitz had been heating up for over 1900 years. Unfortunately, it was the Christian church that instigated the rise of anti-Semitism. The Roman Catholic Church issued edicts in Italy permitting “the burning of Jews.” Another forbade the marriage between Catholics and Jews. Meanwhile, the Great Reformer, Martin Luther, regularly spewed hate-filled rants against the Jewish people. "Christ-killers" was the name he used for them, and accused the Jews of everything from poisoning the well waters in Europe, which Luther insisted was the real cause for the devastating outbreak of Bubonic Plague, to stealing Christian babies to be used in blood sacrifices. But perhaps the worst part of all this is that people actually believed what he was saying was the truth! After all, a great church father like Martin Luther could hardly be lying now could he? Fast forwarding to 2010, in addition to the local loser or losers who spray painted a symbol of hatred under the cover of darkness, we have political leaders like Iran’s Mahmoud Amhadinejad and terror groups, Hamas, and Hezbollah, calling for the extermination of the Jewish people and Israel.

As a believer and a follower of Christ, I know I am obligated to love what God loves. And He loves His Jewish people. Furthermore, contrary to the false teaching of Replacement Theology, which is rampant throughout the Christian Church worldwide, God has never rescinded his covenant with the Jewish people, or the divine contract with them concerning the land of Israel.
The Lord told Abraham,
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for asn everlasting, solemn pledge, to be a God to you and to your posterity after you." Genesis 17:7
And about the land,
“And I will give to you and to your posterity after you the land in which you are a stranger, all of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8
During WWII, individuals like Corrie ten Boom, a woman with an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ, and righteous Gentiles like Oscar Schindler, risked their own lives to save Jewish people from the Nazis. And then, there were others, many of them Christians, who attended church services faithfully every Sunday morning, yet stood idly by and silent as they watched the Nazis round up and arrest their Jewish neighbors on Monday morning. Christians of today must stand united with the Jewish people and Israel so that this will never happen again.