Israel

Editor’s Note: Excerpted, in shortened form, from Dr. Brown’s recent book What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus?

Why have Jewish people been so hated and persecuted through the centuries?

I devoted much of my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, to the subject of anti-Semitism, and on several occasions I have delivered lectures on the question of why anti-Semitism exists. Out of all the hatreds in the world, anti-Semitism is unique.

At the invitation of Christian campus groups, I spoke on this topic at both Yale and Columbia universities, two of America’s most prestigious centers of learning, each time fielding questions from the listeners for better than an hour. My challenge was simple: I have a supernatural, biblical explanation for the phenomenon of anti-Semitism, one which even includes the devil himself—not the most popular theory on a university campus! “Do any of you have a better answer?”

After each lecture, I listened carefully to proposal after proposal, and despite the educational background of many of those in the audience, which included students and graduates of these universities, not one proposal could fully explain the “why” of anti-Semitism. In fact, the best theory that anyone offered was that, perhaps, anti-Semitism was due to aliens! (For more on “alien anti-Semitism,” stay tuned. I’m actually going to address that shortly.) What then makes anti-Semitism such a unique hatred?

A Roman Catholic historian has given a brief but vivid summation of 2,300 years of continuous Anti-Semitism: As the historian of Anti-Semitism looks back over the millennia of horrors he has recorded, an inescapable conclusion emerges: Anti-Semitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. Other hatreds may have surpassed it in intensity for a historical moment, but all in their turn have assumed - or presently commence to assume - their proper place in the dustbin of history.

What other hatred has endured some twenty-three centuries and survived a genocide of 6,000,000 of its victims in its twenty-third century of existence only to find itself still intact and rich in potential for many more years of life? The very magnitude of the record, seen as a whole,cries out for explanation. How did this amalgam of undying hatred and oppression come to be? What is it essentially? Who or what was responsible for it? The author goes on to offer his own explanation of Anti-Semitism. His remarks are illuminating and helpful, but in my opinion they do not provide an adequate explanation.

As there is a temporary break in the hostilities in the Middle East, now is a good time to stop and ask: How should we pray for crises such as this? Should we pray for God to protect the Jewish people from terrorist attacks and for Israel’s military efforts to succeed, or should we pray that God will have mercy on everyone involved – Muslim and Jew alike – bringing a permanent end to all bloodshed? Should we pray for lasting peace to come to the region, or should we pray for the Lord’s speedy return, since that is the only way to achieve true and lasting peace? Should we pray only for the salvation of lost souls, or should we pray for God’s prophetic purposes to come to pass?

Since our prayer support is crucial, let me offer some basic and practical guidelines that will help you to pray more effectively.