The Crucifixion of the Jews

Elijah was one of Israel's greatest prophets who fled for his life from the Sidonian princess Jezebel, who was married to Ahab, a King of a divided Israel, the division happening after King Solomon's son Rehoboam. Elijah told these words to his servant to tell Ahab that he (Elijah) would appear before him and to stop looking for him. Ahab was the worst of Israel's kings, Jezebel, a gentile, their worst queen; they made unholy alliances and killed the prophets I Kings 18:13 and 19:10. They also killed and slandered and stole see I Kings 21 about Nabaioth's vineyard. G-d always sends someone to speak to an apostate people, someone like Elijah. The apostates are those within the ranks of the faithful who reject the tenets or teachings of their faith. This book was written to analyze anti-semitism, its sources, its nature, its expression, its danger. There are two appendices in the back of this book, the first contains a document entitled "A Statement to our Fellow Christians" which was drafted by a committee working for the National Council of Churches for which the author served as chairman. Of the 18 theologians who contributed to this letter, one third were Roman Catholic, one Greek Orthodox, the rest all Protestant; 16 of the members were American. They address basically what the attitude of Christians should be to Jews and the nation of Israel and cite scripture and historical events to bolster their arguments. Their last point equates antisemitism to that unforgivable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit Matthew 12:31. They state: "The pain of the past has taught us that antisemitism is a Pandora's box from which spring not only atrocities against Jews but also contempt for Christ. Whatever the antisemite inflicts on the Jews he inflicts on Christ..." Littell warns in this book that "Recent studies show a rise in anti-semitism in the United States", yet he wrote this book nearly 30 years ago. What about today? One evening in Massachusetts, I sat at a table with all Irish Catholics and one replied "those dirty Jews". I'm sure that not everyone felt the same way, but the question remains where did he get that. In a lesson I'm completing from a National Bible study attended by mostly Protestants, one of the questions asks, "What will unbelievers refuse, causing them to be deluded to believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12?" Yet can't believers believe lies too? Didn't Christian Germany believe the lies of Hitler? Doesn't Christ himself say that 'Many of the elect will fall away?' Translation: Many will apostize. Hmm. Jesus also said in John 16:2-4: 'the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to G-d...They have not known the Father, nor me. I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you will remember that I told you of them.' It's interesting to remember that Jesus never set foot out of The Holy Land and always spoke to audiences of nearly all jews. As Littell shows, one

Israel and the Holocaust are "alpine events deeply resented by many modern Christian teachers," writes Littell in this frank assessment of man's oldest hatred. For starters, Israel's survival against great odds requires theological appraisal for which few are ready. Furthermore, he observes that popular religion admits error but denies guilt. Yet according to Littell, a Christian theologian of towering virtue, "the crucifixion of the Jews is an unavoidable reality," for churches exemplifying a shameless fact. This reminds one of Littell's eloquent call, in Simon Wiesenthal's Sunflower, for increased awareness of the earnest nature of the "choice between good and evil, between innocence and guilt." Israel's very existence, he writes, disproves the replacement theology that would have the Jewish people withering away. The state's strength refutes that idea that Israel and or the Jewish people will eventually be assimilated or annihilated, as well as a "traditional Christian myth about their end in the historic process." For this reason, Littell argues that Israel creates a crisis in much of contemporary Christian theology. To his great credit, Littell recognizes that it is not only the Christian peoples of the world that cannot define themselves without reference to the Jewish people. The same situation presides for Muslims, whose definition of themselves also stems from Judaism. Meanwhile, although the Jewish people define themselves in reference to gentiles, it defines neither Christians nor Muslims nor any other non-Jews, but calls them all gentiles and asks only that they abide by Noachite laws--in other words, follow seven of the 10 commandments; all who do so, Judaism considers righteous. Moreover, the Jewish people need neither Christians nor Muslims to define themselves, which Littell believes perhaps to account for much of the hatred Jewish people have faced over the centuries and today. Littell recounts quite thoughtfully the history of church anti-Semitism, putting all of this detail into the context of its relevance today. There is a struggle with the past in all churches, he writes, a trial which remains as yet unresolved. During the Holocaust, he observes, Jewish people died en masse because other peoples and nations did not recognize their people- and nationhood. "Christians, with the exception of a minority of martyrs and confessors, betrayed the life unto which they were called." But Israel, after all, was and remains the thing that places Christianity into crisis, although Littell admits that Islam's crisis is far deeper than that of Christendom, the Islamic spiritual and intellectual unity remains that of an "unscientific religious culture," which hasn't yet "entered the period of voluntary adherence, pluralism, skeptical study." Littell places the monastic mindset of Islam today on the same plane as the Christian culture of the 13th century. This hardly relieves Christianity of its grave responsibilities, howeve