4 reasons why antisemitism is anti-Christian

Hatred of ethnic Jews stands as a disturbing exception to our culture’s insistence on universal toleration. The October 7 attack by terror groups against Israel provoked a worldwide outpouring, not of support, but of bitter hatred.

This conflict has quickly crossed partisan divides. The sentiment now affects not only the hard Left, where antisemitism has long lurked, but also an increasingproportion of American conservatism, especially among younger generations.

Most shockingly, antisemitic ideas are now infiltrating the Church. But antisemitic ideas are not biblical. In fact, antisemitism is anti-Christian because it denies God’s purposes in history and exempts the Jewish people from the Christian duty to love all people and bring the Gospel to all nations. For clarity, these claims are not based on a dispensationalist position, as I am not a dispensationalist.

Below are four reasons why antisemitism is anti-Christian, based largely on Paul’s extended discussion on the fate of the Jewish people in Romans 9-11.

1. God chose to work through Israel in history

As the Bible recounts, the revelation of God’s plan focuses largely on the Jewish people, specifically the ancient nation of Israel. From Genesis 12 until at least Acts 10, the storyline of Scripture almost exclusively follows this one people, who were mostly insignificant in human eyes.

Why? What was special about Israel to deserve so much attention? According to their own Scriptures, nothing, except that God had chosen them. “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,” Moses told the nation, “but it is because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:7).

Israel had nothing to recommend them to God’s love. Their Scriptures state that Abraham was a pagan idolater living “beyond the Euphrates” when God first called him (Joshua 24:2). Jacob was “a wandering Aramean” whose descendants were enslaved (Deuteronomy 26:5-6). Israel’s subsequent history is a sad cycle of rebellion, stubbornness, and unfaithfulness to their covenant Lord.

God set His love on Israel because of His own sovereign purpose. He established, endured with, and preserved Israel simply because of the free promises He made to them. If anything, God chose Israel to set for Himself the most difficult challenges.

This is one reason Christians should reject antisemitic hatred. God chose to set His love on the Jewish people to magnify His own glorious name, and those who claim to love God should also seek what glorifies His name. “As regards the gospel, they [unbelieving Jews] are enemies for your [Gentiles’] sake,” Paul allowed. “But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).

The moment God’s gifts and calling can be revoked is the moment Christians should become antisemitic.

Some may object that God has not equally loved every physical descendant of Abraham, appealing to Romans 9: “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel … but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Romans 9:6-8).

The argument follows that since God’s new covenant promises have come to the Gentiles, the promises to Israel are not for ethnic Israel as such, but are expanded to God’s chosen people under the new covenant, composed of both Jews and Gentiles.

This argument has biblical warrant and is not antisemitic, as it places Jews on the same footing as everyone else: all must be saved through faith in Christ. At the same time, in that same section of his letter, Paul seems to retain a special category for Jews, based on the principle that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” To be faithful to the whole counsel of God, we must affirm both that the Church is an expansion of “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) and that God has specially chosen the people of Israel.

2. God preserved a remnant of Israel

A second reason antisemitism is anti-Christian is that God has preserved a Jewish remnant, granting them faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

After lamenting the unbelief of most Jews in Romans 9-10, Paul asks, “has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).

Here, Paul emphatically rejects the idea that God has rejected the Jewish people as a whole. He presents himself as an example of an ethnic Jew who believed in Jesus. The descriptors he uses — “an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin” — leave no doubt he is speaking of ethnic Israel. The reference to the tribe of Benjamin rules out any analogy to Gentile Christians.

Paul explains that “at the present time there is a remnant” of Israel, “chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). Only this chosen remnant obtained the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of a Messiah, while “the rest were hardened” (Romans 11:7).

Paul argues the idea of a remnant was no innovation. For an Old Testament parallel, he points to ancient Israel, when God told Elijah he would preserve 7,000 Israelites who did not worship Baal (Romans 11:2-4; 1 Kings 19:10, 18).

Throughout Israel’s history, God preserved a faithful few, even when the nation as a whole seemed to have rejected him. Likewise, though many ethnic Jews today reject Jesus as their Messiah, a remnant believes. If a remnant of Jews becomes Christian, why would Christians despise God’s people as a whole?

Furthermore, Paul argues that even unbelieving Jews play a crucial role for Gentile Christians. “So, I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles,” he asserts (Romans 11:11).

Paul lived out this principle in Pisidian Antioch during his first missionary journey:

“When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”’ And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:45-48).

Although unbelieving Jews are no friends of Jesus, Gentile Christians should be grateful to God that their unbelief paved the way for Gentile inclusion. It is like trials and persecutions — something that seems negative but is for our spiritual benefit.

3. God delivered great blessings through Israel

Many of the benefits enjoyed by Gentile Christians were received through the Jewish people. For example, “the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God,” a reference to the Holy Spirit’s self-revelation in Scripture (Romans 3:2). With the exception of Luke, every biblical author was an ethnic Jew; this is stated with relative confidence even for books with unknown authors.

If it were not for the Jewish people, who carefully preserved and copied these sacred writings, we would not have access to God’s revelation today. The Jewish Scriptures, or Old Testament, contain God’s revelation of His holy character, His work in creation, His moral law, and His promised plan of redemption.

God’s revelation in Scripture was always intended to advance His glory among the nations. Moses told Israel that keeping God’s law “will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:6-8).

Paul’s meditation on the benefits that come through the Jews leads him to break out in praise. “They are Israelites,” he writes, “and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 9:4-5).

4. God will yet redeem “all Israel”

The first three reasons show that antisemitism is anti-Christian based on what God has done through Israel. This fourth reason focuses on what God will do in the future.

Romans 11 paints the big picture: Israel’s unbelief leads to the salvation of the Gentiles. In turn, the salvation of the Gentiles will “make Israel jealous” of the salvation that is their birthright (Romans 11:11), so they will ultimately turn to God. Paul argues from the lesser to the greater: “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” (Romans 11:12).

Ultimately, Paul describes this as a “mystery,” a plan of God previously concealed but now revealed. “A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26).

Admittedly, there are multiple interpretations of the phrase “all Israel” in Romans 11:26. In his commentary on Romans, New Testament scholar Dr. Tom Schreiner presents three main views: that “all Israel” refers to “the Church of Jesus Christ,” “a remnant throughout history,” or “a dramatic future salvation for Israel.” He ultimately advocates the third view.

Regardless of the exact interpretation, Paul’s point stands that God has a future plan to save many people, a plan that involves ethnic Israel.

The right posture

These four reasons should compel Christians to dissociate themselves from antisemitism. Instead, Paul commends two postures of the heart for approaching ethnic Israel in a profoundly Christian manner.

First, do not be arrogant. This is Paul’s command in his famous metaphor of the grafted olive tree. “If some of the branches were broken off [unbelieving Jews], and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others [believing Gentiles] and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree [Jesus Christ], do not be arrogant toward the branches,” Paul warns (Romans 11:17-18).

Paul grounds this humility in the doctrine that a Christian’s standing depends not on personal merit, but on God’s grace through faith. “They [the natural branches] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith,” Paul tells the Gentiles. “So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” (Romans 11:20-21).

Thus, Paul applies some of Jesus’s final teaching to the context of Jew-Gentile relations: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

Second, seek Israel’s salvation. This is what Paul sought. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved,” he wrote (Romans 10:1). Indeed, Paul desired Israel’s salvation so fervently that he almost wished he could be cut off from Christ in their place (Romans 9:3).

Of course, Paul was a fallible human being. We should only follow his example where he shows us the way of Christ. As Paul himself wrote, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

The question for us is this: if Jesus sought Israel’s salvation, and Paul sought Israel’s salvation, do we? And if we desire Israel’s salvation, how can we hate ethnic Jews and indulge in discriminatory, antisemitic attitudes? Such attitudes are not only proud and unloving, but they also oppose God’s revealed plan for His chosen people.

Nothing could be more un-Christian than that.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.