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| The resurgence of Anti-Semitism |
When we study the long sordid history of anti-Semitism, we discover that its roots inevitably trace all the way back to the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church.
From its inception in the 4th Century A.D. , the Catholic Church has waged war against the Jews, beginning with its establishment of the Sunday Sabbath that was instituted to separate the Christians from the Jews by arrogantly declaring that the (Roman Catholic) Church had replaced the Jews as God's chosen people.
Then there were the Crusades that began in the late 11th century that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews.
Then there were in the Spanish Inquisitions that began in the late 15th century. The Spanish Inquisitions forced thousands of Jews to flee Spain to avoid being forcefully converted to Roman Catholicism.
Those Jews who refused to convert were brutally tortured before they were killed. Even those Jews who agreed to convert were tortured if they were merely suspected of being insincere.
And then there were the ghettos established throughout Europe beginning in the Middle Ages that were designed to keep the Jews separate from the gentiles. The Jews who lived in these ghettos were often denied the same rights as gentiles and were restricted from traveling and working in certain professions.
How prevalent was anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church? Even Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation who was able to recognize his church's false gospel, wasn't able to recognize its racism.
Here's what Luther said: "Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther
Here's another pearl from Luther: "But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God."
Where did Luther's anti-Semitism come from? The early church fathers who were arch-racists. St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) is credited with this prayer: "How hateful to me are the enemies of your Scripture! How I wish that you would slay them (the Jews) with your two-edged sword, so that there should be none to oppose your word! Gladly would I have them die to themselves and live to you!"
http://www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm
And John Chrysostom, considered one the "greatest" scholars of the early Catholic Church, said this: "The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts…the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and dabauchees, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop…a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition."…I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason."
Certainly, anti-Semitism existed in the early church before the Catholic Church appeared. However, the Catholic Church sanitized anti-Semitism to the point where it became socially acceptable within that church.
And as the Catholic Church began to spread her rotten influence across the world, anti-Semitism spread along with it until it penetrated nearly every fabric of the secular world.
When he was asked why he had specifically targeted the Jews for extinction, the infamous Adolf Hitler pointed to his Roman Catholic upbringing: "I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions."
http://www.prophecyreviewonline.org/apps/articles/
Has the Catholic Church ever apologized for her sins against the Jews? She has not. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Israel shortly where he will likely exploit the plight of Palestinians living in refugee camps to lambaste Israel as a human rights abuser. And if he does that, the world will undoubtedly listen and agree with him.
Some things never change. Just as God never changes (Malachi 3:6), neither does the Roman Catholic Church.
Then there were the Crusades that began in the late 11th century that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews.
Then there were in the Spanish Inquisitions that began in the late 15th century. The Spanish Inquisitions forced thousands of Jews to flee Spain to avoid being forcefully converted to Roman Catholicism.
Those Jews who refused to convert were brutally tortured before they were killed. Even those Jews who agreed to convert were tortured if they were merely suspected of being insincere.
And then there were the ghettos established throughout Europe beginning in the Middle Ages that were designed to keep the Jews separate from the gentiles. The Jews who lived in these ghettos were often denied the same rights as gentiles and were restricted from traveling and working in certain professions.
How prevalent was anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church? Even Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation who was able to recognize his church's false gospel, wasn't able to recognize its racism.
Here's what Luther said: "Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther
Here's another pearl from Luther: "But what will happen even if we do burn down the Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were doing it publicly. for our knowledge of their secret doings and our toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our conscience is encumbered with it before God."
Where did Luther's anti-Semitism come from? The early church fathers who were arch-racists. St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) is credited with this prayer: "How hateful to me are the enemies of your Scripture! How I wish that you would slay them (the Jews) with your two-edged sword, so that there should be none to oppose your word! Gladly would I have them die to themselves and live to you!"
http://www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm
And John Chrysostom, considered one the "greatest" scholars of the early Catholic Church, said this: "The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts…the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and dabauchees, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop…a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition."…I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason."
Certainly, anti-Semitism existed in the early church before the Catholic Church appeared. However, the Catholic Church sanitized anti-Semitism to the point where it became socially acceptable within that church.
And as the Catholic Church began to spread her rotten influence across the world, anti-Semitism spread along with it until it penetrated nearly every fabric of the secular world.
When he was asked why he had specifically targeted the Jews for extinction, the infamous Adolf Hitler pointed to his Roman Catholic upbringing: "I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions."
http://www.prophecyreviewonline.org/apps/articles/
Has the Catholic Church ever apologized for her sins against the Jews? She has not. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Israel shortly where he will likely exploit the plight of Palestinians living in refugee camps to lambaste Israel as a human rights abuser. And if he does that, the world will undoubtedly listen and agree with him.
Some things never change. Just as God never changes (Malachi 3:6), neither does the Roman Catholic Church.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for documenting history Roy. The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is another horrible example of blood thirsty Roman Catholics slaughtering 70,000 French Christians. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/saint-bartholomews-day-massacre
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