Skip to comments.

To the American Jewish Community: The Synagogue Shooter Was Not a Christian

Townhall.com ^ | April 29, 2019 | Michael Brown

Posted on by Kaslin

I dont care what this demented young man claims. I dont care how much scripture he can quote or how much Christianese he uses. The man is not a Christian. And I can say that on the authority of the New Testament. Jesus Himself deplores such heinous, murderous, cowardly acts.

How can I be so sure?

Jesus taught us to judge a tree by its fruits.

James (actually, Jacob) wrote that we must prove our faith by our works and that faith without accompanying works was dead.

And John (Yochanan in Hebrew) said that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15).

The man is a murderer. He does not have eternal life. The New Testament is clear. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother (1 John 3:10).

It is one thing to be a repentant murderer. It is one thing to commit a terrible crime  even to take another life  and to ask God for forgiveness, turning to Him in contrition and welcoming the legal penalty for your misdeeds.

It is another thing to murder innocent people in Jesus name. Such a person denies the very faith they profess.

As soon as I heard about the shooting, I emailed a dear friend who is a Chabad rabbi, expressing my pain and grief. (The shooting in Poway, California was in a Chabad synagogue.)

We are staunch theological opponents. I am a Jew for Jesus (not organizationally but my faith) and he works for Jews for Judaism.

I am considered a missionary and he a counter-missionary.

We work tirelessly across the theological divide, me telling Jews that Jesus is our Messiah and he urging Jews to turn away from Jesus and embrace traditional Judaism.

But we are fellow-Jews, fellow-human beings, and friends.

And as one who lives in both the Jewish and Christian world, I wanted to reach out to him, knowing how pained he would be by the news.

But I had not yet read the shooters manifesto, a screed that repeated virtually all the major antisemitic tropes. A screed that justified the shedding of Jewish blood in Jesus name. A screed that quoted the New Testament in support of murderous hatred.

This only heightens the pain and the grief.

Once again, a false Christian brings mockery to the name of Jesus and the Christian faith.

Once again, a hypocritical believer feeds into the lie that the role of Christians is to kill the assassins of Christ, those evil, subversive Jews.

Once again, the Jewish community associates bloodshed and hatred with the name of Jesus.

How awful, deplorable, and evil.

The bloodshed itself is horrific enough. But to associate that bloodshed with the one who laid down his life for his enemies is to take the evil to another level.

In the words of the Russian Christian philosopher Nicolai Berdyaev, reflecting on Church history, Christians set themselves between the Messiah and the Jews, hiding from the latter the authentic image of the Savior.

Or, as expressed by Franz Delitzsch, an 19th century German Old Testament scholar, The Church still owes the Jews the actual proof of Christianitys truth. Is it surprising that the Jewish people are such an insensitive and barren field for the Gospel? The Church itself has drenched it in blood and then heaped stones upon it. (For much more on this, see the new edition of Our Hands Are Stained with Blood.)

In recent weeks, I have repeatedly warned professing Christians that their antisemitic words will lead to violence against Jews, no matter how much they repudiate violence. (See here and here and here.)

For saying this I get blasted as a Zionist-shill, a Jew-loving hypocrite, a false Christian, a deceiver, a misleader, and much more.

So be it. The alarm must be sounded. The warning must be given.

You can renounce violence all day long. But when you constantly demonize a people, when you make them responsible for all the evils in society, when you claim they are a direct threat to your personal safety and well-being, violence will necessarily follow. It always does.

We hear this day and night.

The Jews want to take over the world and behead Christians. (Yes, this is actually being taught.)

The Jews have enslaved the entire world in debt.

The Jews are moral subversives who destroy every society where they live.

The Jews are evil. No Jew is innocent. The Jewish problem must be addressed!

How can this not to lead to violence?

There is a new wave of Christian antisemitism rising rapidly in America, something I have not seen in my lifetime.

It behooves all true Christians to separate themselves from this dangerous trend.

That means renouncing erroneous theologies that lead to Jew-hatred as well as renouncing the standard antisemitic lies and tropes.

And may every true Christian in America demonstrate true Christian love to Americas Jewish community.

It is a community that is far from perfect, like every other community. It is a community that has its strengths and its failings, like every other community.

But it is a community loved by God and deserving of full protection under the law.

No Jew in America should ever have to worry about their safety simply because they are Jews.

As expressed by George Washington in his letter to a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, our country was to reflect, A Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance but generously affording to All liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship:  deeming every one, of whatever nation, tongue or language equal parts of the great Governmental Machine.

Yes, May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

With broken hearts, we pray, may it be so!



TOPICS:

Culture/Society

Editorial

KEYWORDS:

antisemitism

bible

christian

judaism

neonazi

ohok

poway

synagogueshooting

whitesupremacist





To: Kaslin

Our society thinks that if you’re not a muzzie or Jew, then you are automatically a Christian.



To: Kaslin

and in Genesis 12:3 God warns, via speaking to Abraham, that He will curse people who curse the line of Abraham - the Jews. Actual Christians would not do what this shooter did.



To: Old Yeller

No. This shooter very specifically described himself as a Christian and cited various canards and lies about the Jews, many historic and generally rejected by all thinking people at this time. If this attitude and mindset is indeed what is happening in some US Christian communities as this author states, then we are on shaky ground.



by 4 posted onby malach (We live in interesting times.)

To: Kaslin

250% Democrat ?



To: Kaslin

Were the Crusaders Christian?



To: Kaslin

Did this murderer claim to be Christian?



by 7 posted onby ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)

To: Kaslin

I read in a lot of different places that Christians are saying these anti-Semitic things and doing these anti-Semitic things, but I do not see it. The churches I regularly fellowship with all know what the Bible says about the Jews and Israel, they all pray for Israel and support it emotionally and verbally, they believe that Israel will be the primary focus of the Millennium. Who are these other Christians and where do they hide? Because God knows them by their fruit and they will pay.



by 8 posted onby wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)

To: malach

"If this attitude and mindset is indeed what is happening in some US Christian communities as this author states, then we are on shaky ground." It's not. The Christian Identity movement is not in any way Christian and it has been around stirring up trouble for decades.



To: Kaslin

I dont know if he was a Nazarene or not, and dont really care. He doesnt reflect on his (or his perceived) religion in any way. I will say, however, that his screed (which I read carefully) read very much like Martin Luthers Of Jews and Their Lies (which said screed cites as inspiration) and would fall neatly into similar writings.



by 10 posted onby Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem)

To: babble-on

"Were the Crusaders Christian?" Of course. They were Catholic - and Catholics are the first Christians.



by 11 posted onby jackibutterfly (Jesus drove a Honda,but didn't talk about it:"For I did not speak of my own Accord"John 12:49(KJV))

To: jackibutterfly

Crusaders were Catholic Christians who were fighting back against the marauding, murderous Muslim hoards who were conquering Christians and killing them. The Muslims were seizing Christian women and using them as slaves and concubines. The Crusades were a reaction to Islamic expansion into Christian lands.



To: Old Yeller

Our society thinks that if youre not a muzzie or Jew, then you are automatically a Christian. Unless you're Black or Hispanic, when they think you're a member of the American Humanist Association.



To: Kaslin

Sigh. I try to avoid commenting on threads like this. Even now I worry about the consequences of what I'm going to say, but doggone it, I'm going to say it. If this is my last post on Free Republic (on the eve of my 20th anniversary here), it's been good to know you all. The author assumes that morality is absolutely to be defined with chrstianity. If chrstianity gets a black eye, so does morality. If morality is to be defended, chrstianity must be defended. HELLO?????????????? Morality was around a long time before chrstianity existed. So was G-d. So was the Bible. It was called Judaism. To this day chrstians quote the Jewish Bible against such abominations as homosexuality as if it were a chrstian book. It is NOT. Adam was not a chrstian. Noah was not a chrstian. Abraham was not a chrstian. Moses was not a chrstian. Joshua was not a chrstian. David was not a chrstian. Mordecai was not a chrstian. Daniel was not a chrstian. Do I have to keep going??? G-d gave moral commandments to Adam and Noah before finalizing them for all time at Mt. Sinai. And there weren't even any Primitive Baptists around to tell them how to do it right. Why does everyone forget that Judaism predates chrstianity? Why does everyone assume that chrstianity is the "rightful heir" of the ancient Biblical religion and that Judaism is some free-thinking, left wing rebellion that broke off two thousand years ago to organize garment workers and do dirty stand-up routines??? If the world had acknowledged HaShem long ago, we would probably be living in a true Theocracy now. Chrstianity was never necessary at any time. In fact, in the long run it's only made things worse. FCOL, I'm from the very heart of the Protestant Bible Belt but I always knew the ancient Israelites were practitioners of Judaism. What happened? Did the mormons "dead dunk" them all into chrstianity or something? If a naive little redneck like me can recognize that G-d was already here and working through history before chrstianity ever existed, what excuse do any of you have??? Please stop acting as if Torah Jews were a bunch of immoralists who have to have morality "defended" to them because it's a "chrstian" concept. It isn't!!! I can actually understand why chrstians believe all this. But what really gets my goat is that so does the rest of the world. The world may be anti-chrstian, but it shares the same worldview (it simply roots for The Other Side). Jews are either free-thinking rebels who must be punished or free-thinking rebels who must be celebrated and protected. Has anyone ever considered the possibility that Jews may not be free-thinking rebels at all??? But unfortunately the so-called "Jewish leadership" (who are all usurpers who should be thrown out, not people we should be begging to vote for us) also believe this. They believe that Judaism originated two thousand years ago as a free-thinking rebellion against pious, conservative(!!!) chrstianity. Jews must side with homosexuals. Jews must side with filth. Jews must oppose such "chrstian" concepts as sexual morality or Noah's Ark (woah, THAT's a chrstian concept!) with all their might and main or their ancestors (who supposedly died for secularism and "religious freedom") will have died in vain. Anyone, liberal or conservative, who sees chrstianity as the continuation of Moses' religion and Judaism as some sort of proto-American Civil Liberties Union is insane. They're nuts. They're crackers. And I'm so sick and tired of the reaction to every atrocity such as last weekend's being whether or not we can still afford to be moral (you know, since supposedly only chrstians advocate morality and supposedly Jews can only live in a sewer). I am so sick of the whole thing! I am unfortunately used to the idea that I seem to be the only person on earth who actually associates modern Jews with their ancient Holy ancestors. No, I take that back. I'll never get used to it. But what we don't need is people jumping up and screaming that the very concept of morality depends on a new religion that didn't even exist two thousand years ago. And that poor brainwashed author who thinks that anything whatsoever can overrule the Revelation at Sinai needs to wake up. Besides . . . doesn't he know that until Martin Luther all chrstians were "working themselves into Heaven" via legal observance??? Kinda hard to argue for a religion when your version of it didn't even exist until five hundred years ago. Morality is not under judgment here, and neither is Judaism. At least not by anyone sane. Here goes nothin'.



To: Kaslin

The author assumes that morality is absolutely to be defined with chrstianity. "Defined" should be "identified."



To: Old Yeller

“Our society thinks that if youre not a muzzie or Jew, then you are automatically a Christian.” atheists (those who claim to define ‘our society’ in our media today) hate all religions and will foist hatred as their tool towards power.



To: jackibutterfly

Catholics are the first Christians. Not true.



To: Zionist Conspirator

We had a moral code before Christianity, as defined in the Old Testament as you point out. Much of what Jesus said was a reiteration of the OT. OTOH Jesus added some new elements or in some cases different interpretations of the OT so you’re not exactly right. But broadly speaking your point is correct.



Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic , LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson