Imagine an America where secularism strangles religious devotion and threatens reprisals against groups who hold certain orthodox beliefs (don’t look under the bed, children). Now, imagine an America where those groups are openly attacked and their members killed. Jewish men and women in America are living out that nightmare. 

For all the violence and hatred aimed at the Jews, the Lord has a different opinion. He says, “I have loved you . . . . Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration, “Even so I loved Jacob yet I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.” (Malachi 1:2-3) 

Twice in 2019, American Jews were targeted; first at a synagogue in California and then at a Jewish market in New Jersey. In a report for The Washington Post about the Jersey City shooting, Kevin Armstrong quotes New York Mayor Bill de Blasio as saying, “This confirms a sad truth; there is a crisis of anti-Semitism gripping this nation.” 

We might think that modernity has produced a higher order of humanity, free from prejudice and animosity. However, attacks like these expose the same problem humans have faced since the Garden of Eden. Our sin nature generates a corruption of character that twists our relationships.

Groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites (two of their members were implicated in the New Jersey attacks), and the Nation of Islam have instituted hate into a religious affection. The highest form of this devotion is hatred for “the Jew.” Bigotry, which leads to violence has risen many times over the centuries. Will we allow it to take root in our generation?

The silence from the Christian church is haunting. We watch and say nothing as secular and religious zealots attack Jews. The church loves Jacob (Romans 11:1-2), and was born as a Jewish organization. Christ Jesus was a Jewish man, and the apostles were Jewish men. The New Testament was written by them and we are told that the gospel is for the Jew first (Romans 1:16).

The church’s task is to stand against the secularism and religious dogmatism that creates anti-Semitism. We have a responsibility to denounce any heretical doctrine that allows violence to be canonized into religious obligation. Similarly, we have a civic duty to point out any philosophy which corrupts our constitutional order. Christians, it is time to speak up.

For the love of Jacob.