By Pastor Thomas Robb
Each spring we remember the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It
is the cornerstone of our faith.
The Apostle Paul said that if Jesus Christ is not raised up from the dead
then all our hope and faith is in vain.
Mel Gibbon chose what many call the Easter season to release his movie, The
Passion of the Christ. I am sure most of you have seen it. And there is no doubt
you have heard the controversy surrounding the film.
Jews have repeatedly denounced the film for being anti-Jewish. Others have
stated that even if it is not anti-Jewish directly, it certainly encourages
anti-Jewish thought and possibly anti-Jewish behavior.
I have seen the movie and I did not see anything anti-Jewish. It seems that
there is almost as much hatred for Mel Gibson for producing the film as there
was for Jesus Christ.
And this brings us to an interesting conclusion. Would Jews living today
crucify Jesus once again it they could?
The observation which we must make is not that the movie is anti-Jewish, but
rather Jews, two thousand years after the crucifixion are still anti-Christ -
Anti-Christ today just as much as they were anti-Christ 2,000 years ago. It is
self evident by their actions, by their words and by their contempt.
Does this make me anti-Jewish? According to Jews I guess it would. But let’s
look at their own conduct.
1) Jews are claiming that the movie is not an actual portrayal of the
crucifixion
2) Jews claim that because they were under Roman domination they can hardly
be responsible for his death.
3) Jews are the real victims because they have suffered anti-Jewish hatred
for 2,000 years where as Christ suffered only during a short period in history.
4) Jews have been warning us not to take children because of its violent
conduct. (of course they never tell us not to take children to other violent
movies)
5) In order to marginalize the sincerity of Mel Gibson’s commitment and the
factual basis of the movie tell us that “No body does violence like Mel
Gibson.” The message we are to receive from this is that the movie is not
really accurate, but is simply a fictional display of Mel Gibson’s violent
expertise.
But it should be self evident from their hysterical response to the movie
that their hatred for Jesus is just as intense today as it was 2,000 years ago.
And the hatred for Christ also extends to the Christian faith and to
Christians, who they hold in contempt.
Before we look at this conspiracy to kill Jesus we want to understand exactly
what we are dealing with.
We must understand Palestine during the period of time Christ lived there.
Most of those who lived in Judea were not Israelites. Most of these people were
a mixture of Israelite, Canaanites and Adamite blood. Because they were not true
Israel, John the Baptist mocked them when they came to observe his Baptisms.
Matt 3:7 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to
his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to
flee from the wrath to come?”
An interesting note on this verse is the phrase “generation of vipers.”
There are two things which need to be pointed out. The first is the word,
vipers, a viper is a serpent, Now was Jesus Christ really talking to serpents.
No. These people that stood before him were not really serpents anymore
than the person who stood before Eve in Genesis 3 was a serpent.
Among the lengthy discourse made on the word Serpent in Appendix 19 of the
Companion Bible this note on the word Serpent in Genesis 3 is given, “The
nachash, or serpent who beguiled Eve is spoken of as “an angel of light” in
2 Cor 11:14. Have we not in this a clear intimation that it was not a snake, but
a being of glorious aspect, apparently an angel to who Eve paid such great
deference acknowledging him as one who seemed to possess superior knowledge and
who was evidently a being of a superior and not an inferior order.”
The other word I want to give an explanation of is the word generation, which
as used here has a completely different meaning than we would usually give it
today. The word generation in the Greek is “ghen - nay - mah” and it means
OFFSPRING. Trace the root of the word and it is “Genos” and it means kindred
or family
John the Baptist is simply saying that there was this element that came to
him and he told them they were the offspring and the family of Serpents.
Today we are being told by modern day Jews that they cannot be held
responsible for the death of Christ because what happened was 2,000 years ago
and besides they are just helpless Jews that were under the power of the mighty
Roman empire.
Is there a collective guilt?
Matt 23:30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be
witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye
generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
What is he telling them?
You would do the exact same thing! Why because they are of the same
generation - the same race.
When the Jews manipulated the Roman governor to kill Jesus proclaiming, “Let
his blood be upon us and upon our children,” they were not musing idle chatter
but were acknowledging the statement I just quoted from Christ. Their fathers
hated God and his servants, they hate God and his servants and their children
will hate God and His servants.
Their hatred for Jesus was so great that He was often forced to return to
Galilee because the Jews were seeking to kill him. It was in Galilee where
most of the true Israelites lived. Judea had become very corrupted racially and
it was not safe for Jesus to stay there for long periods of time. It is
interesting that all the disciples came from Galilee except for Judas Iscariot.
Jesus came to be our substitution for sin and so He had to eventually submit
himself to their blood lust. Satan honestly believed that if he could kill Jesus
his rebellion would be successful. Jesus had to yet prove that he could conquer
death.
The argument that we all are responsible for the death of Jesus Christ is
ridiculous. The belief that we are all responsible for killing Jesus was first
taught by the Catholic church beginning about 1545.
As Satan seeks to destroy our lives he had to let Satan also take His life.
If it was just a matter of Jesus coming, dying and being raised from the dead,
then he could have died in any manner, even in old age. But Jesus had to be
killed by the very element that was seeking to conquer His kingdom. He had to
die at the hands of the same satanic hatred that seeks to take our lives.
The fact is that if given another chance the Jews would kill him again.
Ben Hecht was a famous Jewish author during the early part of the last
century and even today there is a Ben Hecht award that is given out to people
they want to recognize. Of course these people are always Jews or at least the
towel boys for Jewish interests. Cal Thomas the Judeo-Christian conservative
newspaper columnist and a faithful spokesman for Jewish concerns received the
Ben Hecht award a few years ago.
However, Ben Hecht revealing the collective hatred Jews have always shown
toward Christ fantasized the part he would like to have had in the Crucifixion
in his book, A Jew in Love. This is what he wrote, “One of the finest
things ever done by the mob was the crucifixion of Christ. Intellectually it was
a splendid gesture. But trust the mob to bungle. If I’d have been there, if I’d
had charge of executing Christ, I’d have handled if differently, You see, what
I would have done was had him shipped to Robe and fed to the lions. They could
never have made a savior out of mince meat. I would do the same thing to the
radicals today.”
And who are the radicals? It’s clear; the radicals are all followers of
Christ.
While the Jews attempt to shift their blame for the killing of Jesus upon the
Romans their guilt is seen in that even after 2,000 years they still hate Jesus,
hate the Christian faith, hate Christians and hate Christian morals, culture and
society.
I want to quote a little from Bernard Lazare. Lazare was a Jewish author of
several books the most famous being Anti-Semitism. According to the Jewish
encyclopedia he was a prominent member of the 1898 meeting of the world Zionist
congress. The reason I am pointing this out is because I want you to understand
that the statements he makes are not the lone statements of an obscure Jewish
radical but rather very respected man in the Jewish community. Lazare says, “It
is beyond doubt that the Jews, through their wealth, their energy and their
talents supported and furthered the progress of the European revolutions (he is
talking about Communist revolutions). During this period Jewish bankers, Jewish
manufacturers, Jewish poets, journalists, and orators, stirred perhaps by quite
different motives were, nevertheless, all striving toward the same goal, “With
stooping form, unkempt beard, and flashing eyes,” writes Cretineau-Joly, they
might have been seen breathlessly rushing up and down everywhere in those
countries which were unhappy enough to be afflicted with them. Contrary to their
usual motives it was not the desire for wealth, that spurred them on to such
activity, but rather the thought that Christianity could no longer withstand the
repeated shocks which were convulsing society and they were preparing to bring
wreckage on the cross of Calvary.”
In other words the main driving force of these Jews was their unified hated
for Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.
Then after detailing further involvement of Jews in anti-Christian activity
asks the question, “Is it for this reason, then, that the conservative
elements among Christians are anti-Semites.” Why would he say that? It is
because as soon as you take a serious look at the elements which corrupt
Christian morals, values and nations you will always find the Jew. This is what
this Jewish writer is saying.
Then after observing the Jews and their contempt for Christian society, what
is the conclusion that Christians come to? Lazare says, “The Jew, it is
said, is not only a destroyer, but also an up-builder; arrogant, ambitious, and
domineering, he seeks to subject everything to himself. He is not content merely
to destroy Christianity, but he preaches the gospel of Judaism; he not only
assails the Catholic and Protestant faith, but he incites to unbelief, and then
imposes on those whose faith he has undermined his own conception of the world,
of morality and of life. He is engaged in his historic mission, the annihilation
of the religion of Christ.”
Jews tell us that they are not responsible for the death of Jesus Christ and
Mel Gibson’s movie does not go far enough to demonstrate that it was the Romans
and not the Jews which killed Jesus.
In fact to hear them tell it, they are the true victims because the Romans
killed Jesus but everyone blames them.
But from the reading of the Gospels it is evident that they were able to
blackmail, Pontius Pilate.
Bernard Lazare says in his book, Anti-Semitism, (37) “In
some places where the struggle between the Jews and the Christians had reached
an acute stage the Jews, recognized by Roman legislation and possessed of vested
rights, would join the citizens of the towns in dragging the Christians before
the courts.”
I want to remind you, I am simply reading what the Jews are
saying. I am not making the accusation.
Lazare said the Jews, by an act of the Roman legislature is
recognized to possess certain vested rights. And through their power of
manipulation they were able to drag Christians before the courts.
Bernard Lazare then points out that there was a backlash to
Jewish domination of Rome, He writes, because of Jewish “political influence,
and their privileged condition that there was a series of anti-Jewish
demonstrations in Rome.
Cicero was a famous Roman Senator which I am sure you have
all heard he said the power of the Jews was to be feared.
We wonder at how those that hate our morals, values, and
heritage can have such awesome success. Illegal aliens are invading our nation,
we allow our children to be corrupted by televisions, movies and now even our
churches. We wonder how a society can accept race-mixing and homosexuality and
yet think a man or women who is proud of his racial heritage is an evil servant
of Satan.
Jews have even taken a simple movie about the death of Christ
and have wailed about how anti-Jewish it is that preachers around the country
are boot licking Jews and preaching sermons about how unfair it is to think
badly of the poor innocent Jews. Their trickery is something to behold.
Even 2,000 years ago Cicero recognized this tremendous
ability at manipulation. Cicero, is quoted by Bernard Lazare of saying, (p170) “You
know how great is the multitude of the Jews, how firm their union and
their sympathy, how striking their political skill and their sway over the crowd
in the assemblies.”