Christmas and Anti-Semitism. Some people never let up!

Daphne's latest post on her blog, here, makes the following comments:

In old Europe, Easter was the traditional time for assault on the Jews: as is well-known, many a pogrom took place around that time, stoked by the canard that Jews killed Jesus.
These days, it seems to be Christmas that's the traditional time for an all-out assault upon the Jews, in the form of the Jewish State.  As I remarked here, Yuletide sees an intensification of that Open Season on Israel that takes place throughout the year.

I was intrigued. I could understand Easter being an occasion for anti-semitism, although it is fueled by ignorance as well as by hatred. But Christmas? OK, so the usual suspects are still playing games with Christmas Carols, but hatred for the Jews? This is a birth in Judea. It says so in the Bible. We read these texts every year.

Well, my own blog has given me evidence of a spike in interest, about who killed Jesus, just before Christmas. This post, "Who killed Jesus...?" which is the most viewed post since I started blogging, is viewed almost every day, but, according to my stats, they recorded more views than usual for this post during the past week.

After 2000 years, we still need to know how to apportion blame for the death of Jesus. No other death in custody gets that level of attention. It shows how important a Person this Jesus is.

So to all my readers, Jew and Christian, have a blessed time while we Christians celebrate the Messiah/Christ and may the God of Israel grant us all peace in the coming year, be it the peace of heart, mind and spirit that we may well need in these difficult times.

Luke 2:8 - 21

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The fight against anti-Semitism

http://honestreporting.com/a/petition/petition-media-antisemitism.html

Sign this petition to encourage the media to conform to US and EU (!!!) definitions of anti-Semitism.

Recent cases of anti-Israel bias have crossed the line. Demonization of Israel is recognized as a form of anti-Semitism in both the U.S. State Department and European Union Working Definitions of Anti-Semitism. Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 2                                           Sunday Times, Jan. 27                                                                                                                                       Somethings just need doing.

Jews, Israel, Zionism...Cause or Cure?

Daphne Anson has posted here about a terrible article available here. Said article accuses the Jews of gassing the Syrians to provoke war. Daphne recalls what happened when the Black Death ravaged Europe.

Her linked article on the Black Death suggests that Jews were singled out because they were not suffering to the same extent. The reason being the benign effect of the Levitical hygiene laws. According to the book 'None of these Diseases' by S.I. McMillen M.D. (and since updated), it was the application of the Levitical principle of quarantine that brought the disease under control. The mob blamed the Jews, but there were cooler heads in the Church (only they had the power and the knowledge) who reasoned it out and enforced the Levitical rules. Grimly ironic that the Jews were blamed for being the cause when, in fact, they had the cure.

It behooves Christians to remember what St. Paul had to say about the Jews. 

Romans 9:
1I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,^a my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

For Christ read Anointed or Messiah. It all means the same.

In other words, Paul is saying that without the Jews we Gentile Christians would have nothing.

Whenever rogue clerics and others tell us that Israel, the Jews or Zionism is the cause of all evils, we need to remember the Word of God, which we would not have were it not for the Jews.

Paul again: http://biblehub.com/1_timothy/6-10.htm
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

The Jews are no more or less responsible for the evils of this sinful world than anyone else. They are not the Cause...

But they still have the Cure .

 

It's what they don't say that tells you what you need to know.

I should read the vicar's blog more often. Mea culpa. Over at Transforming Grace, he has posted on the bowdlerisation of Scripture with particular reference to a psalm/canticle in Ezekiel.

"The canticle has five verses, but the bible reference shows that verses 27 and 28a are missing. When I notice this sort of omission I turn to my bible to see what the naughty liturgical committee has cut out and here it is (omissions in bold)":

I will take you from the nations
and gather you from all the countries
and bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness-es,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 And I will give you a new heart,
and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers,
and you shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
Ezekiel 36:24-28

This is Rev. Neil's comment on what he saw:

Do you notice what different effects reading the two readings, or singing the canticles, have on you as the reader? The first reading from Common Worship omits the purpose of God’s work in his people. The reader is left with the effect of a warm glow of God’s ability to change the hard human heart. Sure, it’s nice to have a new heart of flesh, but what is this new heart for? The full reading of scripture discloses God’s purposes; to turn the hearts of his people from idols and to give them the desire to obey him.

The cumulative effect of this sort of distortion of scripture might explain why our denomination is as it is. People aren’t stupid but we are all shaped by what we read in devotion. If our liturgy shapes us to talk about worshipping the God of love who changes hearts whilst those who read the whole of scripture have a much fuller and rounded view of God (which includes having a heart for God which turns away from the worship of created things and is willing to obey God’s statutes, amongst other aspects of God’s character revealed in scripture but are judicially removed from our liturgy and our diet of bible readings) then of course we’ll be at odds with one another.

I do not dispute any of this. I added a comment, which I trust will be published, as follows:

They’ve removed the destination so that there is no future Hope for the Christian or the Jew. They’ve removed the removal of idols and so made it multi-faith which removes the Heart of our faith which is Jesus.
They’ve removed the Holy Spirit and so removed the Help of the believer as well as putting their own souls in peril.
Finally, it’s anti-Semitic as well.
No future, no faith and no fruit. No hope. No faith . No love. It’s a pretty comprehensive attack, but it forms the basis of a good sermon!

It's anti-Semitic and it's anti-Messiah/Christ, which is no coincidence. No wonder we're in trouble.

Anti-Zionism IS Anti-Semitism so says a Muslim Zionist!? In Britain!?

He's the one with the posh British accent. The one with heavy accent is the Egyptian Christian Rev. Both these men are taking risks with their lives.

Israel Today picked this one up from Arutz Sheva.

Watch and learn. It's not all bad news.

The Muslim is clearly very British and assimilated, if his accent is anything to go by. The Egyptian lacks a beard so is probably Protestant rather than Coptic.

In my previous post,"do-we-need-islamic-reformation." I observed that a back-to-basics approach ( fundamentalism) produced a very different answer depending on the basics and the founder. 

Here, we need to observe that a liberal approach can have an unexpected benefit. Liberalism, in theology, ignores the bits of the relevant holy book that the liberal doesn't like. In Judeo-Christianity this is a bad thing as it takes us away from Moses and the Messiah  (Reminder, this is a Christian blog that loves Israel.). In Islam, liberalism takes us away from - well you know what I mean.  

What is bad for Judeo-Christianity is good for Islam and vice-versa, which tells you all you need to know about Islam. Think about it!