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As my regular readers will already know, for many years now, I have consistently taught that there is only one Standard, and one Rod of Measurement by which we must judge all things. That Standard is obviously the Word of God. If we judge this person's remarks by that Standard, we run into some problems. By applying God's Word to this person's comments, it suggests that his knowledge of the Scriptures may possibly be somewhat limited. Either that, or he is purposely choosing to ignore certain verses that are found in the Bible, because they do not agree with what he wants to believe.

By indirectly accusing me of not being loving, because I am not afraid to discuss the rebellious nature of the Jews, he seems to be implying that if we say anything that is in any way negative, then it must not be love, and therefore it is wrong. Furthermore, he implies that to say anything negative regarding the Orthodox Jews who resist Christianity is both to condemn and to accuse. The strange thing is, not only were our comments not that negative, but my friend and I were not condemning anyone. As I pointed out earlier, the unbelieving Jews condemn themselves by their own rejection of Christ. Our exchange consisted of matter-of-fact comments regarding his negative experiences with the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem. Furthermore, in our comments, we both mentioned that God has a plan for the Jews.

What this individual seems to fail to recognize is that love is not always expressed with soft, kind words. Sometimes real love is demonstrated by telling people what they really need to hear, and not necessarily by the feel-good words that they want to hear. In other words, in certain situations, a strong rebuke is also a demonstration of love when it is motivated by the desire to help someone to overcome a particular sin or weakness in their life.

When we are forced to scold our children because they have done something wrong, is it a sign that we do not love them? Of course not! It is simply because we want to show them the error of their ways so that they will improve and do better. When our children are young, they may not always understand this. However, quite often, later in life when they are much older and perhaps have some children of their own, they will look back at that incident in their early life and think to themselves, "Wow, mom and dad really were right! They said that or did that because they love me!"

To reiterate, speaking the truth even when it hurts or maybe even when it offends, is also a form of love. Furthermore, as I point out in articles such as "Beholding the Evil and the Good" and "The Fruits of Disobedience", strong rebuke, along with the chastisement which may accompany it, are both a part of God's Divine Love for His children. This idea is clearly supported in the Scriptures by verses such as the following:

"Open rebuke is better than secret love."


"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."


"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."


"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."


If we accept this individual's comments at face value when he states that we are only to love one another, then we are forced to conclude that the Old Testament Prophets were very unloving individuals, Jesus was a very unloving person, and some of the Apostle were very unloving people as well. Why? Because they all said, preached and wrote some very negative things regarding their very own unbelieving and rebellious Jewish brethren. Do you realize that if we were to cut out and dispose of every single verse where something negative or offensive is said regarding the Jews by the Prophets, by Jesus, and by the Apostles, that a major portion of the Bible would be totally lost?

You don't need to just take my word for it. As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, insofar as the unbelieving Jews are concerned, I have not said or written anything that can't also be found somewhere in the pages of the Bible. I am merely repeating what has already been given to us by the ancient writers, and sharing it with my readers.

While I can easily share piles of verses that are found in the Old Testament where the Prophets spoke some very harsh words against their own Jewish brethren, in order to keep this series at a decent length, I will restrict myself to the New Testament. Let us begin with Jesus Himself. It may surprise some of my readers to know that He was not always a soft-spoken lamb who never offended anybody with His words. Quite to the contrary, when it came to the unbelieving Jews who constantly endeavored to trap Him in His words, and who continuously harassed and persecuted Him, the Lord did not hesitate to roar like a lion and firmly rebuke them.

As I point out in the series "My God is a Shocker!", Jesus accused the unbelieving Jews of being hypocrites and whited sepulchres. He pointedly described them as the blind leaders of the blind. He fully exposed them as liars and murderers. He accused them of being guilty of extreme greed. He chided them for being unmerciful legalists. He called them fools. He described them as evil serpents and vipers. Last of all, the Lord called the unbelieving Jews the children of the Devil, the children of hell and the synagogue of Satan.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is this: Should we accuse Jesus of being unloving for having made such obviously harsh remarks concerning the Jews? Such would seem to be the case if we accept what this Facebook visitor stated regarding only loving each other. But so that you can plainly see that Jesus did in fact say all of these things to His hardened Jewish enemies, please consider the following verses:

"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."


"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves . . . Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"


"Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."


"And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?"


"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."


"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."


"Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee."


As we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Word of God is comparable to a sharp, two-edged sword which cuts to the heart, and exposes the thoughts and sins of many. In fact, you may recall that when Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem in order to fulfill the Laws of Moses, the aged Simeon told them that this is what Jesus was destined to do. Consider the following verses:

"And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."


"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."


"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin."


"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"


"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."


"And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."


"And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God . . . And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."


Of course, Jesus was not alone in exposing the sins of the unbelieving Jews. Even though he was Jewish himself, went so far as to refer to himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews, loved his own Jewish brethren, and longed for their Salvation, in some of his Epistles, the Apostle Paul still referred to the Jews who rejected Christ as the children of disobedience who have been blinded by Satan. In fact, we read in the Book of Acts that Paul finally became so fed up with the bullheadedness and recalcitrance of his Jewish brethren, that he dedicated the remainder of his life to preaching God's Word to the Gentiles. Consider the following verses:

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"


"Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience."


"For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:"


"In whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them [the Jews] which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


"Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles."


Many people -- Christian and non-Christian alike -- are very familiar with the term "antichrist". For the majority of such people, the word symbolizes an ungodly ruler, who is possibly possessed by Satan, and who enforces a global identification and credit system, which the Book of Revelation refers to as the Mark of the Beast. However, what many people do not seem to realize, is that in its original context, it was used by the Apostle John to describe his own Jewish brethren who rejected Christ.

This becomes evident when we realize that in the verses which follow, John uses the phrase "children of the devil", which is exactly what Jesus also called the unbelieving Jews in the verses that we examined earlier. In short, John accuses his unbelieving Jewish brethren of being liars -- just as Jesus did -- the children of the devil -- as Jesus also did -- and antichrists. If we consider that Jesus said "He that is not with me is against me", then in essence, He also called them antichrists. Thus, these three similarities reveal that John is really writing about the unbelieving Jews:

"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son."


"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."


"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."


"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist."


It should be clear to you the reader by now, that the full, true Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the socially-acceptable Gospel that we hear being preached in so many churches in our modern day. For those people who reject Jesus Christ -- such as the majority of the Jews -- the Good News is really a very offensive Gospel. Just as many of the Jews were very offended by it two thousand years ago, they continue to be offended by it today as well. This is clearly revealed by verses such as the following:

"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."


"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? . . . From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."


"And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house."


"Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?"


"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him."


"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."


That is why they hate us, and why they hate our message. We tell them -- as Jesus and the Apostles did -- that Jesus is the only true way to Salvation. Sadly, most of them continue to believe and insist that they are quite capable of saving themselves by observing the Laws of Moses, and through their various rituals and traditions of men. They embrace the Old Covenant, and refuse to discard it in order to accept the New Covenant which God made with us through the Sacrificial Blood of His own dear Son, Jesus Christ. The Israelis shout to the world that they only want to be Jews who follow the mandates of Judaism. They want Israel to be a Jewish state. But as we saw in part one, what they don't realize is that without Jesus Christ at its center, Judaism is a religion of death, and not a religion of life. It is leading people to hell, exactly as Jesus said in Matthew chapter twenty-three.

This negative reaction from the unbelievers -- whether they are Jew or Gentile -- should not surprise us, because Jesus warned His followers of this day, as did His Apostles, as we can determine by the following verses:

"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls."


"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."


"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."


Returning to the accusation of antisemitism, considering the preponderance of Scriptural evidence which I have provided in this series, I hope that it is clear to my readers that if anyone is going to accuse me of being antisemitic, then by doing so, they are likewise accusing Jesus, Paul and John of being antisemitic as well, because I simply teach what they themselves said, taught and wrote concerning their own Jewish brethren.

The same applies to the Old Testament Prophets. If anyone accuses me of antisemitism, how do they respond to all of the Prophets who did not hesitate to firmly expose the sins of their rebellious Jewish brethren in Book after Book? Are they guilty of antisemitism as well? Were they acting in an unloving manner? Or is rebuke actually a form of love, as I explained earlier? In short, to condemn me, and to accuse me of antisemitism is to outright deny the truth of the Bible. It is basically to frame the Bible as an antisemitic Book, just because it reveals the sins of the unbelieving Jews.

As I mentioned in part one, I am most certainly not ignorant of God's Plan of Salvation. As a diligent student of God's Word for many years, I am fully aware of the fact that God still loves the Jews in spite of their stiff-necked rebellion against Him. I know that He has a plan for them, and that as with all men, He desires repentance, healing and Salvation for them, as we can determine by the following verses:

"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"


"For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."


"And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village."


"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."


Almost two thousand years ago while standing in the temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and after delivering what is undoubtedly one of the strongest rebukes that we find in the four Gospels, Jesus stated the following to the unbelieving, hard-hearted Jews:

"For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."


Despite that pointed rebuke, and the many other rebukes that Jesus delivered to His Jewish brethren; despite the warnings that the Apostles delivered in their sermons and Epistles; despite the fact that the Lord utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the temple for a second time along with the religious system that was associated with it in 70 AD; and despite the fact that in His great Love and Mercy, God has continued to reach out to the Jews for the past two thousand years, sadly, to this day, in their pride and arrogance, the vast majority of them continue to resist the conviction of the Holy Ghost. As the Martyr Stephen cried out just as those very same Jews were about to stone him to death:

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."


What a sad and tragic tale! Even after all of that, most of the Jews today are still not ready to say "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." As I mentioned in part one, the Anti-Missionary Law in Israel even makes it illegal for any Christian to openly preach the Gospel in that rebellious nation, while at the same time, greedy Jews suck up American Christians' tourist dollars. While Jews and some pro-Israel Christians may not like it, the fact of the matter remains that God purposely used the Jews throughout the pages of the Bible as a clear example of what not to do. In other words, God expects us to learn from all of their grievous mistakes, and their sins of stubbornness, rebellion and pride. The Apostle Paul writes as much in the following verses:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:"


"Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."


As noted Spanish philosopher, essayist and novelist George Santayana so famously stated in his early Twentieth Century five-volume work "The Life of Reasons", "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The tragedy is that the Jews do remember their long past -- including the serious mistakes that they made -- and yet they still want to repeat it by building a third temple. This temple, -- if it is truly ever constructed -- will not be centered around Jesus Christ. As I explain in articles such as "Prophetic Comparisons: Moshiach, Mahdi and Messiah" and "Who is Moshiach ben David?", it will be centered around their false messiah, who may possibly be Moshiach ben David; that is, Messiah, son of David. His name may seem similar to Jesus, who is the only one true Messiah, but this man -- if he does arrive on the world stage -- will most certainly not be Jesus. He will be a deceiver.

Please go to part three for the conclusion of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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