by James Carroll
This is not a commentary intended to denigrate a particular "Church" today, but is more a commentary of what our enemy, Satan, has accomplishedwithinman-organized ecumenical Christendom.It is a startlingpartialfulfillment of the prophecies of Matthew l3 wherein our Lordgave an overview of the spiritual condition of apostasy that would come to predominatethe present apostate age of the Wheat and the Tares:the age of the false shepherds and the true sons of the Kingdom.
Jesus forewarned that this apostasy would only happen because some men would be asleep in the spirit and permit tragic errancy to come in."While men slept, the enemy came....."Mt. 13:24
Thisbook revealsthe actualhistory of the age of Christendomthat succeeded the Apostolic form of the Church to the present age and should make every true disciple of Christ deeplygrieve.
"What Jews are doing is only what Jews have always done:
to affirm that only God is God.God's existence is the ONLY
absolute and God's existence matters absolutely.
The Hubris of the human heart cannot forgive the Jew
for bringing into the world the idea of a transcendent God
and a divinely sanctioned moral law binding on everyone.
Jews have suffered so long because they bear the burden
of God in history.Anti-Semitism is symptomatic of an
animus against God, an animus deeply lodged in every person."
Edward Flannery, “Constantine's Sword”Pg 393
The Church and the Jews
by James Carroll
The book is an "internal" record of the first face of organized Christendom.....dating from 325 AD to the present date.
Here is where tragic worldwide deceptions were conceived that have shaped most world opinion about religion, the Bible and the Jews.In particular,this is where current anti-Semitism was born and fully developed.Just think about this fact: starting from equal beginnings, the Arab population today numbers over 200 million, whereas the Jewish population today numbers under l4 million.Such is the grievous result of this animus towards Jews over seventeen centuries of persecution under the banner of a Church.
Before the Reformation, there were no brakes on a religious hierarchy that held unbridled world power. What began as irrational rage,profound Biblical ignorance and spiritual arrogance was allowed to grow unchecked over centuries.It would reap the result of near genocide and the systematic carnage of a people.Intentional or not, this Church system - through its influence in shaping religious attitudes on an unprecedented global scale - would essentially teach the world to hate the Jews by what it taught in theory.The word "Church", as it is used here, is a reference to the organized form of the Church that predated the Reformation of l,500 A.D.
Author James Carroll was an ordained Priest of this Church, and recently left due to the anti-Semitism that still pervades and dominates it's culture.He unmasks the history that will answer the questions being asked more and more today as anti-Semitism is on the rise once again following the European holocaust:Why are the Jews so hated by the world?What have they done?
For the sake of Biblical and historical clarity,I have inserted my own commentary under the headings "Truth" which follow below.These are not the comments of the author, James Carroll.The point is not to condemn a particular Church,but to bring to lightthe vast devastation of it's blind actions. Forgiveness is imperative for us today:but only sincere repentance can truly bring healing. When evangelizing Jews today, we must be especially sensitive and recognize that this history of devastation is the prism through which most Jews today will view "Christianity".
THE FIRST WORLD-WIDE DECEPTIONS:
THE COUNCIL OF NICEA-A.D. 325
The first organized "Church" of Christendom that succeeded and replaced the Apostolic form of the Church was the product of a vast world-wide Empire.This Church wouldhold dominion over most religious concepts and attitudes for almost 2,000 years. The following were some of the Church sanctioned doctrines:the effect of which was to sow the seeds of undeserved hatred for the Jews.This legacy of hate looms even more ominously today.In the current Middle-East crisis, the media of Arab-Moslem States enflame the passions of Moslems daily with these very same invectives.
1 Deception:THE JEWS KILLED JESUS, THE MESSIAH (The Doctrine)
Therefore:the Jews are "accursed" forever
Therefore:the Torah andHebrew Scriptures(the Old Testament) are also "accursed". Hebrew Scriptures are considered irrelevant today
Therefore:the first institutionalized Church declared itself to have"authority" over all Jews and over all Scripture
Truth: The responsibility for the death of Jesus belongs to all mankind,and our sins mark EACH ONE OF US as responsible.His death as the Lamb of God was fulfillment of the sovereign will of God and the essential aspect of God's own plan of redemption for all mankind.His death was not the crime of one particular people, but of all people.In historical reality, Jews and Gentiles jointly crucified the Messiah.
"Him [Christ], being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:23)The death of Jesus was the determined will of Almighty God from the foundation of the world.Christ willingly laid aside His glory "from before the world was" and permitted Himself to die so as to become the fulfillment of a lamb for remission of sin: the ultimate lesson of the Tabernacle.In doing so He fulfilled the redemptive design of the Tabernacle and the Passover.
John 17:15 &15:29
The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that it was Yahwah Adonai.....the Lord God....Who had ordained His death for the salvation of all.
"Yet Adonai laid on Him, the guilt of us all......Yet it pleased Adonaito bruise Him......HE has put Him to grief"[This same scripture In the Dead Sea Scrolls states, "Yet it pleased Adonai to PIERCE Him."]
Isaiah 53:10
Messiah would not only take upon Himself all the sins of mankind in general:but He would take upon Himself the sins of Israel in particular: "For the transgression of My people [Israel] He was stricken."
Isaiah 53:8 & Ezeiel 34:30
2Deception: JEWS ARE “ACCURSED” FOREVER
Their imposed suffering (deemed to be a duty of the "Church") tragically is meant to be proof of God's rejection of them.The contrast of the suffering Jews and the "glorious Gentile Church" becomes the public witness of the superiority of the Church.Therefore it was a Papal duty to find a "final solution for the Jewish problem".This chilling statement from past holocaust history was coined by this Church.
(Refer Deception 4 - C)
These words would be used by Hitler to justify the holocaust.
Truth: God's Covenant with Abraham and his seed was an Eternal Covenant.God declared in Isa. 43, "This people [Israel] have I formed for MYSELF."Of Israel He further declares, "therefore you are My witnesses that I AM GOD.You are My servant, Israel, in whom I WILL BE GLORIFIED."
"Therefore, I will save My flock....Indeed, I MYSELF will search for My sheep and seek them out.[Jesus declares that He has come to find the lost sheep of the House of Israel] And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them.....and will bring them back to their own land;I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. (partially fulfilled with Statehood in l948)
I will raise up for them a garden of renown and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore.Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the House of Israel are My people says the Lord God.You are My flock, the flock of My pasture."
Ezekiel 34
Despite Israel's failure, God promised them a "new Covenant” for the latter days, the means by which He would overcome their failure. Jeremiah 31:31
Later He defined the "new Covenant" further, and states: "Moreover, I will make a Covenant of PEACE with them and it shall be an Everlasting Covenant with them."[this was the 'new Covenant' declared by Jesus to His Jewish Apostles in Mt. 26:28] Ezek 37:26
Speaking to Israel in Ezekiel 36, God states His ultimate purpose; "And I will sanctify My great name which has been profaned among the nations and the nations shall know that I AM THE LORD, says the Lord God, WHEN I AM HALLOWED IN YOU before their eyes.
Thus, I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and I will be known in the eyes of many nations.THEN THEY SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD."
God's reputation and honour among the nations is at stake.His faithfulness to His Covenant with Israel and the preservation of Israel is for His ultimate purpose and cause in the world.It reflects His faithfulness, His grace, His omnipotent authority on the earth and His ultimate purposes in history.The calling of Israel as His servant was not for any inherent human virtue!
God is saying in these above scriptures, that His faithfulness to Israel was NOT about Israel's righteousness but was all about His grace and His integrity to His promises.The same is true today.Our salvation is about His grace and not about our righteousness.
3 Deception:Overcoming the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament)
A.To overcome these above scriptures and many others, the Church declared itself to be "spiritual" Israel.But if the Church is indeed "spiritual" Israel than by the Church's own doctrinal standard, they are "accursed forever." They cannot have it both ways!
Truth: God's Covenant with Israel is unconditional and eternal.Paul makes this clear in Romans 9, 10 and 11....that Israel is the vine and the root: and the Gentiles, through grace, are grafted into the vine and into the promises of Israel.Gentiles are "wild" branches that are grafted in:but the ancient root is Israel.That is God's order and it will never change.
B.The Hebrew scriptures, renamed the Old Testament at Nicea, are inferior to the Gentile scripture, the New Testament.
Truth: The division of the Bible into "Old" and "New" Testaments was a doctrine devised by men and not scripturally directed by God.The underlying motive becomes the witness of this.The effort was to make a clear demarcation of the "suspect" Jewish scripture versus thenewer "Gentile" scripture.In truth, ALL scripture in the Bible was written by Jews with the exception of the Book of Luke.Despite this fact many still teach that the "Gentile" scripture, the New Testament, is superior.
Incredibly, the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. puts forth the Doctrine that the New Testament itself contains anti-Semitic proof of God's hatred of the Jews: citing as doctrinal proof Jesus' statement to the Pharisees, "....your father is Satan and the father of lies."From this scripture, wildly lifted out of context, came the Church doctrine that Jesus declared Satan to be the father of the Jews.
In correct context, Jesus was addressing the corrupt Priesthood and the Pharisees only!This statement was never directed towards the believing Jewish multitudes that came to accept Him as the Messiah in greater and greater numbers.Certainly this statement was NOT meant to include the Apostles or their disciples, who were Jews.In rejecting the religious leadership of His day, Christ was fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel 34 (the Good Shepherd replaces the false shepherds of Israel that mislead and devour the flock).
4 Deception: The Invention of Non-existent "Scripture"was used to further enflame passions as officially enforced anti-Semitism swept like wildfire over most of Europe and the known world.
A.After centuries of invective spewing from the pulpits, the way had been prepared for mob violence to finally erupt. An excuse for the Crusades was born in this terrifying edict from the Church publicly directed to all Jews:"You are the children of those who killed our object of veneration, hanging Him on a tree;and He Himself had said: ‘there will yet come a day when My children will come and avenge My blood’.We are His children and it is therefore obligatory for us to avenge Him since you are the ones who rebel and disbelieve us about Him."
Truth: Jesus never, ever, uttered such a statement anywhere in Scripture. He commissioned His true Church, as His servants today, to minister without judgment and to carry a message of grace and forgiveness.The only judgment appropriate for believers today is to judge the fruit of a ministry or the fruit of a re-generated life and not the person:whether the fruit be of God.The Holy Spirit and the truth of God's Word will guide us in this.
In His prophecies of Matthew 13, Jesus revealed that only He and His reapers, the angels, would administer judgment at the end of the age.Even though Satan had planted tares [the sons of the wicked one] right alongside the wheat that Jesus had just planted [the sons of the Kingdom], when His servants discovered tares and wanted to remove them He said:
"No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.Let both grow TOGETHER until the harvest and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them,but gather the wheat into My barn."
The doctrine of blood avengement against the Jews cannot be found anywhere in Scripture, and does not reflect the teachings of Jesus in any way.
B."We desire to combat the enemies of God.......but we have under our eyes the Jew, a race more inimical to God than all the others." Christian Chronicler Guibert of Nogent (l053 - 1124)
Truth: ".....as touching the election, they are BELOVED for the sake of the fathers {Abraham, Isaac and Jacob} for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable." Ro 11:29
C."The final solution" was not conceived by Nazis but became the tragic and devastating result of over 1,700 years of unrelenting and undeserved Anti-Semitic denigration invented within Christendom.
Truth: During the Nazi regime in Europe, this invective was read from the pulpits of Poland as a part of official Church endorsement of a Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, "There will be the Jewish problem as long as the Jews remain......the Jews are fighting against the Church persisting in free-thinking and arevanguards of Godlessness (?)....it is a fact that the Jewish influence on morality is pernicious and.....that Jews deceive, levy interest (bankers) and are pimps."
Because this Church held such unswayed influence throughout Europe for almost two millennia, to this day, the European nations remain vehemently anti-Semitic and especially anti-Israel......always taking the side of the Arab States in the current Middle East conflict through their voting record in the United Nations and the European Union.
D.The intent of this Church began to evolve into ever-escalating Anti-Semitism. Now it sought to eliminate any Jewish presence in Christianity both by inducing the Jews to convert and deny their Jewish heritage and destroy all remnants of Judaism even after no Jews remained anywhere.The Church saw itself as "owning" Jews and saw their debasement and elimination as a calling of the Church.Jewish degradation was itself taken as proof of the "Christian" claims of authority over them.
Truth: In 1517 Martin Luther published a text, "On The Jews And Their Lies." Hitler himself would use this publication together with many other official edicts of the Church as justification for "the final solution of the Jewish problem" that the Church had long sought. He made the extermination of all Jews left in Europe his personal mission.
To support his position, Hitler drew from historical Church Archives citing such statements as: "The Jews do not deserve to live:they are lower than the animals and the children of Satan.”
This Church - the most prominent "Christian" voice in Europe - did not protest or even attempt to intercede: sanctioning by it's silence what ittaught in principle. It stood by mutely as the German Holocaust slaughter began. Hitler was born a Roman Catholic and was never excommunicated by the Church either after his death, or even after the evidence of the slaughter of from five to six million Jews.
Truth: All of these above positions are ungodly and scripturally ignorant. They precariously ignore God's divine revelation in Scripture and HIS WILL.
"Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved." Romans 9:27
"God has NOT cast away His people whom He foreknew.......even so then there is a remnant according to the election of grace...... concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] and the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience.... Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the same mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy.
For I do not desire that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own conceits.....that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
SO ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED, AS IT IS WRITTEN.......!"Romans 11:25
5 Deception: Inflammatory false accusations from the pulpits
Inflammatory false accusations from the pulpits further enrage passions and promulgate the spectre of rising world revulsion for Jews.
A.Blood Libel:On November9, 1304 Dominican leader Giordano da Rivalto stated, "..the Jews are evil at heart and hate the Church with evil hatred.They are hated throughout the world because they are evil toward Christ."
In his sermons he made a charge that Jews steal the Eucharistic Host to blaspheme it, and he further claimed to have personally witnessed such desecration.This sermonizing resulted in the death of 24,000 Jews in this one region alone.
In 1490 the Church brought a charge against a Jew, Yuce Franco.He was accused of ritually crucifying a kidnapped Christian male infant for this purpose.Franco and his accused accomplices were tried and executed in 1491.Over 150,000 Jews were expelled from Spain due to this Church-created falsehood against Jews.
From thereafter and into our modern age, Jews continue to be accused of drinking the blood of innocent Christian victims at Passover Seders and of using blood to make Passover matzos: a contrived and dangerous defamation that has never been re-canted.Jews have never been exonerated of this libel and it continues to foment ominously today.
As late as March 2002 as the Jewish Passover drew near, Arab newspapers seized upon this clergy-created lie of Jewish "Blood Libel" and widely circulated it throughout the Arab and Moslem States.But now the libelous claim includes Moslem blood.
Truth: God strictly forbade the consumption of any blood by the Hebrews for any reason. That is why they could not eat "anything strangled", lest any blood remained in the animal.
Paul restated this strict law in Acts 15:20.But now he was also applying it to Gentiles being grafted into the Apostolic Church; "....that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality and from things strangled, and FROM BLOOD."
The charge of Blood Libel is the most ludicrous and scripturally ignorant accusation that could ever be contrived against Jews;whose very laws from God forbid such a gross practice.
B. In 1490 the Church decreed, "that the mingling of Jews with Christians leads to the worst evils.The Jews try their best to seduce the Christian, persuading them to follow the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Bible).In consequence, our holy faith is debased and humbled.....the only means to put an end to these evils is a definitive breaking of all relations between Jews and Christian......"
Truth: If a "holy faith" can be debased and humbled by the truth of Scripture, it must be prayerfully re-examined.
A careful reading of the New Testament reveals Jesus Himself referring constantly to the "law of Moses" (the Torah) or what was commonly called "Moses".In fact, it was His prime source of scriptural reference through-out the Gospels.
"Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father, there is one who accuses you-Moses.For if you believed Moses [the Torah] you would believe Me......for he wrote of Me.But if you do not believe his writings, HOW will you believe My words?" (on what basis?)Jo 5: 45-47
"Then He said to them 'These are the words which I spoke to you when I was still with you;that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning ME." Lu 24:44
"And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Lu 24:27
In one of his last ministry acts, Paul followed this example in Acts 28:23:"So when they had appointed him a day many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening."
It is important to recognize that anywhere in the New Testament where the word "scripture" is used, the reference is always to the Hebrew Scriptures, or what became renamed The Old Testament for convenience.There was no New Testament during the times of the Apostles or for the next 300 years.The Apostles taught from the Hebrew Scriptures without exception, and we should include them in our Bible studies today.
C.Black Plague: Between 1348 and 1351, twenty to twenty-five million people died as this disease spread throughout Europe. Here, the first charge of an international conspiracy against Christians by Jews was born.Christians became panicked and immediately blamed the Jews. Terrified survivors in the cities began to blame the Jews of a well-poisoning conspiracy.
Under torture, some Jews in Geneva confessed that the rumor was true which was all it took.Jews were slaughtered in large numbers. "By the time the plague had passed", Barbara Tuchman observed, "few Jewswere left in Germany or the Low Countries of Europe."
Officials of plague-stricken towns and cities wrote to officials elsewhere, warning of the Jewish well-poisoners.A contemporary chronicler wrote, "In the matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it... and for this reason the Jews were burned all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany...."
Truth: As Rosemary Radford Ruether puts it, "the mob merely acted out, in practice, a hatred which the Church taught in theory and enforced in social degradation whenever possible and was never more tragic or dangerous. Now resounding from the pulpits in Churches was a steady drumbeat of officially enforced anti-Jewish denigration and loathing." Rosemary Radford Ruether
E.Racism emerges within Christendom
Jews would become identified as the prime obstacle to the prosperity and amity that were "properly due to the faithful followers."The anti-Semitic attitude towards Jewish "converts" now within the Church began to seethe.The whispered implication gave way eventually to become real Church policy.....that anyone with "Jewish blood", whatever his or her religious identity, had become "suspect".
"In fact", historian Angus MacKay writes, "the hatred of even the converted Jews and their success grew into racial hatred.As early as l449 the idea was being propagated, that the pure blood of 'old' Christians was being defiled by that of the Jewish race."
Jews would now be legally defined within Christendom, not by religion, but by blood.Official Church racism had been born.
The Inquisitions claimed to have found, after torturing victims, "that the "new Christian" (Jewish converts) were generally involved in Jewish rituals and obeyed precepts of Judaism:Sabbath worship:the Festival Days: the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).Because this was forbidden by the Church, this perceived rejection of the absolute authority of the Church over all Christians and over even the Bible itself caused the Tribunal Session to require the heretics to recant or be put to death.
Even today in much of Christendom, the appointment of candidates to "offices entrusted with the care of souls" must be qualified by candidates displaying genealogical charts...to show that there are no Jews among their ancestors."
These blood purity regulations became the ancestors of the NaziNuremberg Laws, and underlie the concept of a pure Aryan race.
Truth: "What Jews are doing is only what Jews have always done.....to affirm that only God is God.God's existence is the only absolute and God's existence matters absolutely.The hubris in the human heart cannot forgive the Jew for bringing into the world the idea of a transcendent God and a divinely sanctioned moral law binding on everyone.Jews have suffered so long because they bear the burden of God in history.Anti-Semitism is symptomatic of an animus against God, an animus deeply lodged in every person."
Edward Flannery, Constantine's Sword...pg 393
D.Communism Because Karl Marx was a Jew that introduced Communism, it was deemed to be proof of the evil of Jewish blood: that he promoted a society without God.His example was used as evidence of Jewish evil.
6 Deception: The Bible is shrouded in unknowable "mystery"
This church also taught that the Bible is shrouded in unknowable“mystery” and that only one self-declared "Church" within all of Cristendom has authority over all Scripture and over all interpretation of the Bible contents.The Doctrine states that the
heart of the matter is "mystery in all religion". The gentile Church
fathers determined that if mystery is at the core of religion, "then
ambiguity, paradox and even doubt are not faith, but aspects of it." Vatican III
Truth: The knowledge of God has been given to us by Him through the Holy Spirit, and through the Hebrew Scriptures that He inspired.We reject them at our peril:"My people are dying for lack of knowledge."
"......seek the Lord your God and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul."Deuteronomy. 4:29
"......those who seek Me WILL FIND ME." Proverbs 8:17
The Holy Spirit was given by God at Pentecost for all purposes of God's revelation.Jesus said in Mt 13:24, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Man who sowed good seed in His field;BUT WHILE MEN SLEPT, His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." (the 'tares" were the sons of the wicked one" - vs. 38)
The enemy of Christ did not come and sow tares while CHRIST was asleep!His prophesy is a warning that this real event would happen within Christendom in our age after His death.The enemy of Christ did come in while men slept!While some entrusted with the Church were completely asleep in the spirit, false shepherds and false doctrine did come into the field of His true Church.He knew that due to spiritual blindness,the confusing apostate age we live in would be sown by Satan.
But He makes a great distinction in this scripture between "men that are asleep" and "His true servants".In vs. 27 we see that the servants notice immediately that there ARE tares in the field.They identify the tares without hesitation.The true servants of Christ will not be taken in by inappropriate man-made doctrine and profound Biblical ignorance.
The laity was kept in Biblical ignorance during the historic period called "the Dark Ages" and were denied any access whatsoever to Bibles.It was not until 1,500 A.D. that Bibles once again became available through the efforts of the Reformers, Tyndale and Wycliffe.These brave men translated and hand-printed Bibles to make them available to all.They were burned at the stake as "heretics" for returning Bibles to God's people.
7 Deception:Doctrine of salvation by Church affiliation
A.The SOLE means of salvation for all mankind is the institutionalized Church of Nicea, 325 A.D.The criterion of salvation became membership in the Church and superseded a personal relationship with Christ.Parishioners would be taught to direct prayers to icons that were said to represent "saints" rather than pray directly to Christ Himself. The Priesthood of the Church inserted itself between the believer and Christ by insisting that confessions of sin be made to a Priest.Forgiveness of sins was also administered by the Priest.Eventually, forgiveness would be purchased from a vastly corrupt priesthood.
Absolution from sin became the luxury of the very rich.Even murder could be forgiven by the appropriate "Indulgence" fee.
Truth: This Doctrine is in complete conflict with all Scriptural revelation from God.The Scripture from God is precise:only God can forgive sin.Forgiveness of sin is the sole province of God and cannot be administered by mankind acting in the role of Christ.Forgiveness cannot be purchased by payment to a priesthood,but is extended by the grace of God only.
Christians are called to forgiveness of each other in a limited sense of unity in Christ and of reflecting the true nature of Christ. Buttrue absolution and redemption from sin is the sole purview of God.
There is only ONE way to salvation and forgiveness and Jesus spoke of this in John 14:6: “ I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.No one comes to the Father except through ME!"
Our prayers, confessions and worship must be directed to Christ alone.
B. The rampant doctrine of "Replacement Theology" that began at Nicea, and became the seed that would flourish into the near genocide of a people.After the Reformation, over 80% of Christendom today still believes this Doctrine, but applies it to their particular denomination only.When this Doctrine began, the official tenet was developed that because God had "abandoned" the Jews for murdering the Messiah, the Gentile Church was God's replacement of the nation of Israel.(Refer Deception 2)
The Doctrine teaches that because the new Church had replaced Israel, all the Covenant promises of Israelhad passed to it.Therefore, the Church was entitled to crushing dominion over the "accursed" Jews and overtheir "Scriptures". The innovative claim of "spiritual authority" over the secular and religious life of Jews was made: that Jews must be made to suffer and be dominated with shame and humility.
This "suffering" was proof of their unworthiness and proof of God's rejection of them.Conversely, Jewish suffering was a sign of God's approval of the Church over Jews: and Jews were to be "the witness people" of the superiority of the Church over Jews.
Truth:The degradation of Jews did not prove the inferiority of Judaism.The degradation of Jews as the "witness people" had been caused by centuries of inexplicable Church-sanctioned hatred and inflammatory defamation.
(Refer to Deception 2)
C.Augustine, 400 AD: "let the Jews live: but don't let them thrive !"He was the author of Replacement Theology and Jewish oppression.For 1,700 years the Church of Nicea has used the denigration of Jews as their public emblem of spiritual superiority in the world. "Jews should not be allowed to own any property or have any public dignity whatsoever."
The first "ghettos" were a result of enacted Church doctrine and the worst Ghettos were located at the foot of Church headquarters in Rome.This shameless display was flaunted as proud affirmation of God's rejection of Jews.During his European campaign, Napoleon and his armies freed the occupants of these "Church-sanctioned"ghettos, describing inhumane squalor and unspeakable suffering.
Eventually, this officially enforced Doctrine erupted into blind violence and became acted out as mass murder and genocide:
-forced conversions or death
-Crusades, Inquisitions and Pogroms
-Ghettos....Jews, confined to squalid sectors, were forced to wear black uniforms marked with yellow Stars of David and pointed yellow hats to humiliate them above all others.
-Hitler "borrowed" this humiliation for his own ghettos.
The constant drumbeat of anti-Semitism pouring from the pulpits was evolving into irrational hysteria and fear on a global scale spreading with Christendom over the world.The ever-escalating fear and loathing would finally break forth into a devastating reality when massive Jewish extermination was the result in wartime Nazi Germany.(From 5-6 million lives: almost half of the present world population of Jews today).
Truth: God's plan for His true Church was to be NEITHER Jew nor Greek!These worldly identities were to be abandoned and a new identity in Christ was to be the model.The true Church must be a united congregation of both Jew and Greek, a unified Body under one Spirit and one Lord!Demanding "conversion or death" was not among the teachings of Christ.
8 DeceptionA. Constantine had converted to true
Christianity
Truth: In actual fact, Constantine believedin Mithraism:the elaborate pagan worship of the Sun-god that dominated the Roman Empire during the time of Christ.Mithraism was an evolvement of the Babylonian Mystery Religion founded by Nimrod at Babel.When God scattered the people of Babel over the earth, the mystery cults of the Sun-God and the Mother-Goddess permeated all the religions of the world.
History confirms that he merely co-mingled the worship of the Sun-god with his created mutation of "Christianity".In this way, he single- handedly saved a weakened and crumbling Roman Empire.By marrying the political and religious life of all Romans into a heady cocktail of paganism and Christianity, he gained absolute control of the Empire.
"As seenin Constantine's originated piety, his supreme deity would have been associated with the sun. Pagans would have recognized, with reason, their own solar cult in such "Christian" practices as orienting Churches to the east:worshiping on "Sun-day":celebrating the resurrection of Ishtar on the Vernal Equinox (Easter): and the birth of the Sun-god at the Winter Solstice......there was a lack of religious clarity in Constantine's own mind." Ibid. (pg l83)
As Emperor, Constantine's real goal was his own absolute power through the unity of politics and religion under His sole Imperial authority.Even so, Constantine was called the "new Moses" by his new Church.
Truth: Only one year after the Council of Nicea, he murderedhis own wife and son over a political intrigue.He later murdered two other rivals in this incident. As he introduced Christianity to the Empire, his personal actions would be the witness of the authenticity of his conversion.
B.Constantine gave the Church authority over the established precepts of God.The Bishops at Nicea banned the celebration of Passover in the same week as "Easter", now being embraced as part of new Christian worship by Rome.This celebration originated from the veneration of the fertility goddess, Ishtar, who was worshipped throughout the Empire on the Vernal Equinox.Because the Vernal Equinoxfalls at approximately the same time as the Passover Season, this became a problem for Rome........the death of Christ on Passover was too "Jewish".
An Imperial edict of law was passed that forbade such a coincidence to occur.Constantine decreed, " ........the odious Jews may not celebrate Passover in the same week as the "Christian Easter".
Truth:This was a devastating blow to the original Christian believers being swept by law into the new Church.From the time of the earliest Apostolic Churches led by the Apostle Paul, there is historical evidence that all the congregations celebrated the Festivals of Leviticus 23 in their appointed Seasons: especially the Passover Season.This Messianic group called itself "The Way" and taught that the Festival Days, including the Sabbath, contained the complete picture of redemption and revealed all aspects of the full ministry of Messiah:demonstrating both His First and Second Coming.
In Levitucus 23, God gave the seven Festival days as an agricultural year of Spring harvest and Fall harvest. The Spring Festivals describe the first coming of Christ, and the Fall Harvest describes His second coming/return.
The spiritual dynamic was important:that if the first four Festival Days (Spring Festivals) have been fulfilled completely, then the latter three will also be fulfilled in the same way.The first four Festival Days were fulfilled in precise detail at Pentecost!
The three Fall Festivals yet to be fulfilled contain the promises of the Kingdom Age, the catching-away and resurrection of the saints and the Return of Christ as the conquering Warrior King.The Festivals were "moeds" or rehearsals of things yet to be fulfilled:and just as they were Appointments for God's people, they were also Appointments for Messiah to fulfill some aspect of the Redemptive plan.
Christ's death at Passover was a cardinal-point revelation, binding together the prophetic Hebrew Scriptures with it's fulfillment in Christ.Likewise, the Hebrew Scriptures are bound together with the fulfillment of all the Festival Seasons.
A careful review of the New Testament activities confirms that the Apostles were in attendance at the Temple for Festival Days, taking their disciples with them.This is obvious in the case of Pentecost.
If the Feast of Pentecost holds such significance for us today, so do the lessons in the other six Festival Days. In teaching about the full ministry of Jesus, Paul demonstrates this in Acts 28:25.
C. At Nicea, Imperial edict outlawed Messianic Jews (converted Jews) from membership in the Church and all Jewish Hebraic precepts were summarily banned: such as the Festival Days, Sabbath worship, etc.
Truth: Historically, most of the true Christians being forced by law into the state-sanctioned Church insisted on Sabbath worship over the traditional Roman Sunday worship now being imposed on them.To counter this, Constantine passed The "Sunday Worship Law' making it a crime to worship on the Sabbath.The early Christians correctly saw that all of Rome worshipped a pagan idol on the day designated by Rome for the worship of the Sun-god:Sun-day.
9 Deception:Doctrine of religious Mysticism
A. Mithraism was an Order of religious "mysticism" that historically evolved from the inception of Baal worship (Sun-God worship) begun by Nimrod at Babel.By the time of Christ, this pagan worship had transmuted into Greek philosophy and mythology.Aristotle, Socrates and Plato were among the highly revered teachers and promoters of Mithraism and Greek mythology.Secular Humanism was the underlying theme and had also evolved from the same pagan roots.Secular Humanism rejects life dependent on God.
At this time, the Greek world was willing to embrace the "Christian" God of Constantine, but in doing so they would ascribe their pagan deity attributes to God.Now, the Hebraic view of God and the Greek view of God would be diametrically opposed.The Hebraic view of God revealed in the "Old Testament" had become unacceptable.
Instead, God would become "unknowable", unpredictable and remote: to fit the Greek model.This is where "the God of the Old Testament is an angry God" was conceived.
Constantine had ushered in a process through which Christianity became the official religion of the Empire by merging certain aspects of pagan Mithraism with "Christianity". His inception of "mystical religion" would open the way for the "mystical priesthood". They would dispense access to the "unknowable God" for a laity seen as not having direct access to God.
Mithraism's priesthood - the "Fathers" -were already the long established clergy in Rome prior to Nicea.After Nicea, Rome's "spiritual fathers" would continue to serve as the sole bridge to the "unknowable God" for the laity.
Truth: God has revealed Himself and His nature of grace completely through His Son.Christ is never intentionally “mystical" or "remote".He shines the light of truth on everything!Lack of under- standing is on our part.
This priestly Order of "Fathers" had been active in the Roman Empire during the time of Christ and He made this statement specifically about them so that His disciples and the multitudes would not be misled:
"Do not call anyone on earth your father, for One is your Father, He who is in Heaven."(John 23:7)In the context of rebuking this false religious priesthood of His day, He was making the point that we cannot have a "spiritual father" or a priesthood that attempts to replace God Himself. "The Father" is a divine term reserved for God alone.
"For thereis one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus...."
l Timothy 2:5
B.The pre-eminence and infallible authority of the Gentile "Church Fathers"
As Gentile Church history evolved, the theology and doctrines developed by Christendom's "early Church Fathers" would be founded more in pagan Greek mythology and secular humanism than in the Bible itself.By rejecting the foundational precepts of God contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament, the field was wide open for manmade doctrines. Most of them do not reflect the true message of Jesus Christ in any way.
C. Augustine, 400 AD:"Let the Jews live, but don't let them thrive"
Augustine was a life-long believer of the meta-physical sciences and especially, secular humanism.He became a Priest late in life and never denounced these pagan beliefs.Instead, he continued to embrace these Greek ideals as models of higher thought;even though they came from secular philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates and Plato.Despite the fact that these authors were pagans, they remained his ideal until his death.
He revered the pagan mysticism of Greek mythology in particular.Most of his conclusions regarding religious matters came from these influences. He believed that the Hebrew Scriptures, steeped in antiquity, were irrelevant to the new Church of "Greek higher thought".
He was the author of the Church doctrine of global "witness":that Jews must suffer to confirm the Gentile superiority.
His preference for Greek mythology and religious mysticism caused him to completely reject the literal view of the Hebrew Scriptures which was the Apostolic view.Instead, he introduced the Greek "allegorical" interpretation over the Jewish literal view of prophecy.This influence has had a disastrous effect on Bible interpretation ever since and was the principle source of the confusion and bitter contention prevalent today.Without this allegorical view, doctrines such as Church replacement of Israel cannot stand.
Truth: The same Greek models that formulated all Augustine's ideals were actually previously established in Babylonian pagan roots, and were the earliest proponents of secular humanism that dominates the modern world today.Secular humanism promotes life that is independent of God.Although Augustine rejected the Hebrew Scriptures as Divine revelation, he did revere and promote the writings and concepts of pagan men such as Plato, Socrates and Aristotle.Nevertheless his teachings are still deemed by his Church to be "inerrant" revelations.
D.Ambrose AD 339-397 He agonized that the "dawning of the Christian Empire was being delayed by Satan's surviving agents, the Jews."He demanded that the Emperors should combat Judaism and that the Church and related ecumenical authorities should consider the ruin of Jews their common cause.
His teachings of contempt for Jews together with official enforcement would eventually underwrite what would become a perceived global problem:"the final solution of the Jewish problem"..........the extermination of all Jews.Hitler would cite Ambrose's writings as support for his murderous regime. The Arab-Moslem States today have adopted some of these as their own.
Truth: Only by straying so far from the Divine revelations of God and His principles of truth contained in the Hebrew Scriptures could such questionable doctrines ever take hold.The Hebrew Scriptures were purposefully renamed the "Old Testament" for the sole purpose of rejection:because they bore witness against and refute most of the "new" doctrines formulated at Nicea.
Though they would never call themselves so,the Apostles were the true Church "fathers".They were faithful Jewish men who never abandoned the faith of their ancestral fathers.They lived and taught within the context of their Jewish culture and the Hebrew Scriptures.
They were always present for the Festival Seasons.The only one that is acknowledged as relevant today by most of Christendom is Pentecost. If Pentecost is important to Christendom today, why is it assumed that the other six Festival Days can be summarily rejected as irrelevant?God commanded His people to proclaim the Festivals in their seasons for a purpose.
Paul especially demonstrates this throughout the New Testament by faithfully continuing to attend Festival and Sabbath services wherever he traveled.I believe the congregational meetings were held on the first day of the week precisely because the Sabbath was reserved for the personal worship of God.The two do not have to be mutually exclusive!
10 Deception: The new Church was formed through a democratic process
A."Christian" Bishops participated in a democratic process when formulating the new Church at The Roman Council of Nicea.This Council was assembled as a democratic meeting of all the "Christian" Bishops in the Empire to organize and define the new Church.
Truth: Of over 300 Bishops invited from all over the Roman Empire, none were Jews.They were purposefully excluded.In most cases, the Bishops that were invited were actually Bishops of the Pagan Church of Rome.Now they were being called together to codify their version of blended "Christianity".Rather than a democratic consensus, a new "King" was being enthroned and he would establish new Church doctrinal direction.
Quoting from "Constantine's Sword"....."At Nicea the Bishops were to agree to a formulaic Statement of Beliefs and some still recite this formula today as the Nicene Creed.They did so unanimously .....well, almost unanimously.Those who dissented were exiled by Constantine.Later, dissenters were excommunicated and eventually violently murdered as heretics."
As a stark contrast, the early Apostolic congregations were all truly democratic.Bishops (elders) were elected into leadership.They could be voted out of office for errant teaching or unacceptable moral behavior. God's model of the true Church is that leadership must be held accountable bythe congregations they serve."You have tested those who say they are Apostles and are not, and have found them to be liars."Rev 2: 2
B.Establishing a Royal Hierarchy to rule the Church Constantine was the absolute and sole Caesar demonstrating an authority no one had exercised before.To him, the unity of the Empire under him was the absolute political virtue and goal.
He established himself as the first "King of the Church" and his Cardinals and Bishops as "Princes" of the Church.A hurried campaign was begun to build large and resplendent Churches throughout the Empire to illustrate the "blessedness and superiority of the Church."
Even today, a throne for the "Prince of the Church" is the centralfeature of all such Churches of this denomination.
Truth: Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is the ONLY KING for true believers.He is the only Prince:the Prince of Peace.His disciples are identified by humility and service: and not by prestige and "Lordly" stations of oppressive rulership within an organized structure.
"...he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased;and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."
Matthew 23:8-12
C.Icons as "Saints"to be venerated and prayed to Constantine adopted into Christendom the elaborate order of icons that was an evolvement of the ancient Mystery Cults of Babylon and was a central part of the pagan religion of the Empire.This act would forever set all early institutionalized "Christianity" apart from it's true root, Judaism.
God condemns the use of icons for any purpose of worship.The blatant veneration of icons within Christendom would prevent a credible "witness" to any sincere Jews: both at that time and espec- ially today.In fact, most of the early Christians being swept into the new Church, AND the Jews together rejected the Roman veneration of icons as blatant pagan practice.
During this time, a massive statute of Apollo dominated the city of Rome and every religious Roman would kiss his toe.After Nicea, this same statue was renamed "Peter", after the Christian Apostle. The toe of this immense statue is still being kissed in Rome today.No sincere Jew that isseeking God today could identify the true Messianic message in such practices.The sad alternative for many centuries was violent death.
D.The earthly "Fathers" of the Church represent Christ on the earth.
The priestly Order of Mithraism - the "Fathers" - were an ancient Order of Priests that also derived their beginnings historicallyfrom the Mystery Cults of Babylon.These "fathers" were positioned as our sole liaison to Heaven.They claim to speak for Christ and act in His place: dispensing comfort to believers in confession and granting absolution from sin.They have attempted to insert themselves between Christ and His true Church.
Despite the rebuke of Christ, "call no man father upon the earth, for One is your Father which is in heaven," they continue to be called "fathers" to this day."The Father" is a divine title reserved for God alone.
Truth: Christ does not need any form of manmade inter- cession on the earth because He is here and He is IN US.In fact, WE are the Church.....the Royal Priesthood of Christ!The word "Church" in its Greek reality means "called out for the service of God."This can be one person, two, or a whole congregation."Church" did not originally mean a building, an institution or membership in an organ- ization.The Reformation did return the individual priesthood to every believer, but not all the Reformers abandoned the anti-Semitism of Christendom's dark past.
We must never allow any organized religious entity or any man to intercede in our personal relationship with God.Sometime it may be easier to relate to a man than it is to relate directly to Christ.A man will not hold us as accountable to the Lord and His precepts as He will do Himself.But He desires a personal, intimate relationship with us.Manmade religious organizations will always disappointus ... .....but He will NEVER disappoint us.We must confess our sins to Him and direct our worship and prayers to Him alone.
Churches, in their correct pastoral context, can be wonderful for teaching, worship and fellowship. But ultimately our loyalty must be to Christ.
James Carroll ends his book by demanding that his Church repent of their anti-Jewish attitudes and make a public apology:even financial restitution where possible.But Carroll, along with over 80% of Christendom today, still believes most of the doctrinal positions that were in themselves responsible for inflamingthe passions that led to the near genocide of a people.The Hebrew Scriptures are still mostly considered irrelevant today and the Church is still deemed to have replaced Israel.Despite the Reformation, many of these doctrines have remained intact and have become the legacy of most major denominations today.
Even if an apology is made; without the revelation of truth behind the apology, it will not be real!By denying the Hebrew Scriptures, which are the foundational scriptural revelation from God, profound Biblical ignorance and dark and dangerous bias still remains.It crouches at the door waiting for further expression once more.After a life-long service as a Priest, Carroll left the Church in disillusionment.
The sincere apology he is demanding from the Church is still not forthcoming.A recent statement attempting to pass as a politically-correct apology of sorts fell far short of it's intended mark.Citing as an excuse, "there were misunderstandings on both sides" attempts to lay blame for the devastating anti-Semitism of the Church equally at the feet of both the Jews and the Church. Whereas the Jews were the blameless victims of Church sanctioned genocide and denigration under the banner of a Church of Christ.
As we contemplate the grievous history of how world-wide anti-Semitism evolved, it becomes very obvious that we stand at the forefront of a major spiritual battle taking place before our very eyes today.Not only have we been grafted into the glorious inheritance of Israel's promises, but we have been grafted into Israel's very real flesh-and-blood battle with the enemy of Christ.The enemy has sought to destroy the ambassadors of God's sovereign will upon the earth from their inception.
God has placed a choice before us.We can choose to participate and take up the spiritual armor described by Paul in Ephesians 6:the most essential of these being the Sword of Truth.Or we can choose to do what many in Christendom and the rest of the world has done, simply avert our eyes and look the other way.
Carmen F. Johnson
Shabbat Shalom Jewish Christian Fellowship
References
Constantine's Sword, The Church and the Jews
James Carroll
Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
Marvin R.Wilson
Babylon Mystery Religion, Ancient and Modern
Ralph Woodrow