What
follows is a book report, made from excerpts taken from
Michael L. Brown's "Our
Hands Are Stained With BLOOD".
Forward
It is said of a good book, "I could not put it down."
I must say of Our Hands Are Stained With Blood, "I wanted
to put it down, set it aside, not read it or deal with its
issues"-but I couldn't.
The Lord would not let me put it down.
I was too convicted. Convicted of my ignorance. Ignorance of the spirit of
anti-Semitism that has been in the Church and in many so-called
Christians throughout history.
I did not know the extent of the persecution by Gentile
"Christians" toward our Jewish brethren in the past.
I know it now-thanks to Mike Brown's thorough research
and indisputable historical facts.
The statements of Christian leaders of the past toward
the Jew left me shaken and awakened.
What scares me is that a similar spirit
of anti-Semitism is in the Church today among some segments
of the Body of Christ. This
has come in the form of a popular teaching circulating in
the Church called "Replacement Theology," the idea that
the Church is the new Israel,
and that the Church alone is the fulfillment of the Old
Testament prophecies regarding God's covenant with the Jewish
people. If you have struggled with this question out
of either ignorance or personal conviction, I challenge
you to read chapters 12 and 13 of this book prayerfully.
Mike's interpretation of the apostle
Paul's teaching on who is Israel
and who is a Jew is indisputable.
To any sincere student of the Word these chapters
will forever establish in your mind and heart that we Christians
are not the new
Jew or true Jew, that God has not
and never will forsake His people, and that the possession
of the Land by Israel is a right
not granted by man but miraculously by God in perpetuity.
This book is therefore a wake-up call to
the Church. As a
pastor I want anti-Semitism to stop at the church door.
It must have no place among true Christians. Wherever we see this attitude raise its ugly
head we must work to change it.
And may intercessors be raised up to pray for the
gospel to go "to the Jew first."
I consider myself to be a lover of Israel and of
the Jewish people. But
there were blind spots in my vision toward the Jews.
Mike Brown's message made me, I believe, better prepared
to pray for and work toward the peace of Jerusalem.
My prayer is that you will be as deeply
moved as I was by this book, and that you will see that
it gets into the hands of pastors, Christian leaders and
laymen, as I plan to do-whether they are sensitive to Jewish
issues or not. No
one can be the same toward the Jewish people, both those
who believe in Jesus and those who do not, after reading
Our Hands Are Stained With Blood.
Don Wilkerson
Times Square Church
Publisher's Foreword
This book needed to be written.
Gentile believers need to know what was done to the
Jewish people over the centuries in the name of Jesus.
We Gentile believers need to understand
the pain and suffering that countless pseudo-Christians
have brought upon the Jewish people.
Only then can we ever begin to comprehend the depth
of the pain and sorrow they have endured at the hands of
so-called "Christians".
Although much of what you will read cannot
be attributed to genuine Christian believers, some of it
can. There is an unnerving trend toward a renewed
anti-Semitic spirit, even among Christians, not only in
the United States,
but worldwide.
We need to understand our responsibility
"to stand in the gap" on behalf of God's still-chosen people. Genuine prayers of intercession need to be offered
on the behalf of Israel. Heart prayers of repentance need to be offered
on behalf of those genuine Christian brethren who have carried
and still do carry such hate in their hearts.
Resolve must be born deep in our spirits that will
expose anti-Semitic attitudes both in ourselves and those
around us.
Finally, we need to be reminded to pray
for the peace of Jerusalem, as the Scripture commands us
to do, that the glory of the Lord might subdue the earth,
and that at His coming, there would be a Bride made up of
Jewish and Gentile believers alike, standing together in
genuine unity and in the bonds of peace.
From the
Preface:
".It
is the Christian Church-in name, though not in spirit-that
has actually written much of Israel's unbearably painful history,
using Jewish blood instead of ink.
To this day, the name "Jesus Christ" is considered
a swear word in many Jewish homes.
The Savior's precious name has become profanity,
tarnished by the evils done in His name by those who call
themselves His people. It
is time we Christians become aware of this shameful past
so that there might be a glorious future-for Israel
and the Church.."
An
Orthodox Jewish author in a book published in 1991, could
say: "Today, one of the most fundamental causes of Jewish
suffering is the hatred of Christians towards Jews and the
Jewish faith." This Jewish author actually believes:
From his birth,
every Christian, practicing or nominal, imbibes the belief
that the Jews, i.e., any and every individual Jew, are answerable
for the murder of his messiah.
Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the acts of
persecution, religious coercion and massacres suffered in
history by our People came at the hands of Christians. Thus we see that Christianity was a significant
and major cause of Jewish suffering (Meir Simcha Sokolovsky).
As you read some of the chapters that follow-especially
as you realize that for many Jews, this "Christianity" was
the only brand they ever saw-you will feel revulsion, shock
and anger. No doubt your reaction will be, "But that's
not the real Church! That's
not me! True Christians are filled with love, not hate."
On the one hand, that is absolutely true.
The Church that butchered Jewish men, women and children
could only be a thoroughly apostate Church.
In order to emphasize that point, I have often put
the words "Church" and "Christian" in quotation marks.
Throughout the book, you will be reminded of that.
.we must realize that both in the past and in the
present, the erroneous theology of true Christians has helped open the door
for all types of murderous persecutions of the Jews. The fact that some of this theology is still
alive today is strong evidence that the contemporary Church
needs to repent."
".Worse still-this is almost beyond comprehension-there
are Christian leaders whose ministries are largely devoted
to warning believers to beware of evil Israel.
I am not exaggerating!
There is still an ugly spirit in the Body that must
be exposed. It is bad enough that the same diabolical spirit
of anti-Semitism influences much of the world today. But that it still exists in the Church is unthinkable!
Would to God that this generation
of believers would finally drive out that foul spirit.
This book has been written with a burning (and often
broken) heart, in the hope that the people of God today
would utterly repudiate the Church's sins of yesterday.
This will bring reconciliation-reconciliation of
the Church to the Jewish people, and reconciliation of the
Jewish people to their Messiah.
No doubt there will be controversy, from both Christian
and Jewish perspectives. I only ask that you, the reader, read this book
with an open heart before God.
The results are in His hands.
May your heart be stirred to action as you read the
pages that follow!
Chapter One
The Final Solution
"You are about to go on a journey.
The soldiers have ordered you aboard and the train
is ready to leave. You stand side by side with your family, wondering
what will come next. You
are crowded into a railway cattle car, packed with dozens
of other adults and children.
Where are they taking us now?."
Let's find out:
".The
old, the sick, pregnant women and small children, two thousand
innocent souls, were shot and brutally thrown into [freshly
dug] graves, one on top of the other.
Many of them were still alive!
For most of the children they didn't even waste a
bullet. They were
just thrown in alive. And
together with those who were only wounded, finished their
lives under the pressure of the human mass.We learned of
the massacre from the Polish police themselves.
They told [our friend] Moshe Hersh about it in great
detail, because they themselves had taken part in that slaughter.
On the following Sunday, they went to church
with their families, as if nothing had happened. They suffered no guilt feelings. After all, they were only murdering Jews, with
the blessing of their priests, who inflamed them from their
pulpits on Sundays" (Martin Rosenblum, quoted in Martin
Gilbert, The Holocaust: A History of the Jews During the Second World War [New
York: Henry Holt, 1985, p. 445, my emphasis]
p. 177, Notes section of Our
Hands Are Stained With BLOOD.
Chapter Two
A Terrible, Tragic Past
"Christianity
did not create the Holocaust; indeed Nazism was anti-Christian,
but it made it possible.
Without Christian antisemitism, the Holocaust would
have been inconceivable.Hitler and the Nazis found in medieval
Catholic anti-Jewish legislation a model for their own,
and they read and reprinted Martin Luther's virulently antisemitic
writings. It is instructive that the Holocaust was unleashed
by the only major country in Europe
having approximately equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants. Both traditions
were saturated with Jew-hatred.
[Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin,
"Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 104.]"
".The German
Nazis, then, did not discard the past; they built upon it. They did not begin a development; they completed
it. [Raul Hillberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews.1985]"
Chapter Three
A Blessed and
Beautiful Stream
"It is true that the Church has sinned terribly against the
Jewish people. But not all the Church has sinned. Wherever
Jesus has been lifted up and adored, there have always been
genuine lovers of Israel. There has
been a bloody river
of Jew-hatred
that has flowed through the history of the Church.
But there has also been a stream of sacrificial love. It must overflow its banks in our day. Mercy and compassion must arise for the Lord's
brothers and sisters in the flesh.
How exhilarating it is when we walk in love."
Learn about this stream of love and river of blood and who plays an active
role within each.
Chapter Four
The Rabbis: Stiff-necked,
Hardhearted and Proud?
"There are hypocritical leaders in every religion.
There are charlatans in every faith.
But are the rabbis especially guilty?
Are they worse than everyone else?
Do they all conceal horrible sins in their hearts? Are they ungodly blasphemers, since they deny
Jesus as Lord? Are
they superficial legalists, since they reject the New Covenant?"
The truth about the way most of the rabbis are
and were in history will amaze and humble you. Are you ready for the truth?
Chapter Five
Miriam and Jacob:
Household Names in the
Savior's Home
"What do you think of when you hear the words, "Mary,
the mother of Jesus"? Do you think of a statue in a Catholic church
somewhere, with the Son of God as a babe in His mother's
lap? It certainly sounds "Christian," doesn't it?
Now, what do you think when you hear the words,
"Miriam, the mother of Yeshua"?
Quite a different picture comes to mind!
This one looks extremely Jewish.
Well, for the record: The
mother of Jesus was named Miriam as surely as the sister
of Moses was named Miriam. In fact, all the Mary's in the New Testament
were Jewish women called Miriam.
(That's right, Mary Magdalene
was actually Miriam of Magdala!
If we had called her "Mary," she would not have known
we were talking to her.) Because the New Testament was written in Greek,
the names have come down to us in Greek dress. But, if we want to get our facts straight, we
need to understand that John was really Jochanan (pronounced
Yochanan), Matthew was really Mattityahu (Mattai for short)
and good ol' Simon Peter was really Shimon Kepha.
In fact, James was really not James at all.
He was Jacob!."
Do you really understand the culture the Christian church was born out
of? If you're so
not sure now, you need to read this chapter.
Modern Messianic Jewish congregations may be carbon
copies of the original Jerusalem Church
of God. Does that
shock you?
Chapter Six
Bad Reporting,
Bias and Bigotry
"What do the major newspapers, news magazines and
news broadcasts on television and radio all have in common?
It is a history of misleading, anti-Israel reporting!
Here are some examples.
What follows in this chapter is a factual expose of reported stories and
the actual truth that debunks each and every one. Do you have the courage to learn the truth and
be set free from all the lies?
Read the real plain truth about this bias as Chapter
Six exposes and separates fact from fiction behind the sensational
news stories of the mainstream press. Who are the real bigots?
Chapter Eight
The Inquisition Isn't Over
"Everyone has heard about the Spanish Inquisition.
In the days of Christopher Columbus and of Ferdinand
and Isabella of Spain, the Catholic Church launched a terrible
persecution against suspected heretics.
Thousands [of Jews] were imprisoned, tortured and
burned at the stake.
All this is common knowledge.
But how many of us know that there was a particular
"heresy" the Spanish Inquisition sought to uncover and destroy?"
This one will amaze you! But it has been part and parcel of the apostate
church as well as many genuine churches,
that Jews who converted to Christianity up until
very recently had to forsake every vestige of their Jewish background
and religious practices.
But be it known:
"Rather than taking the Law away from Israel,
God promised to put it in their hearts.
The New Covenant does not do away with God's Law
[cf. Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:6-12].
Instead, it makes it relevant in a new and living
way. This actually
should be attractive
to other Jews!
Of course, observance of the Law does not make us
more righteous, more loved or more spiritual.
Through the cross our sins are forgiven, and the
Spirit leads us in paths of life. But where is it written that believers, in particular
Jewish believers, are forbidden
to observe the Law? Where is it written that the Spirit always leads us away from and against the Law?
Let's get more specific: Where do the Scriptures
clearly and decisively make Sunday into the Sabbath?
(Forget about Church tradition.
What does the Bible say?) Then why are Jewish believers who set aside
Saturday for Sabbath worship considered divisive?
Where does God say to forget the biblical feasts?
Then why are Jewish believers who celebrate the feasts
instead of later, man-made holidays, accused of going back
under the Law? [and
certain Sabbatarian Christian churches and denominations
who keep the biblical feasts instead of the man-made holidays-they
are labeled (I say libeled) as legalists.]
Where does the Word
teach that Jews must become Gentiles to be saved?
We have really forgotten our roots!
Chapter Nine
Are You a Crusader
for Christ?
"According to Romans
11:11, "salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."
When the Jewish people see that it is the Gentiles
who have Israel's Messiah, the Gentiles who are enjoying the manifest presence of God, the Gentiles who are walking in the joy of
the Lord, then Israel
will become envious. But has the Church made Israel envious?"
If
you think so, then you need to read what follows in this
chapter--what an Israeli writer has had to say on this subject.
Also, why do Jewish believers insist
on calling themselves Messianic
Jews?
Chapter Ten
"More Tears"
"A little more than 100 years ago, a Christian minister
to the Jews "was asked what he thought wanting on the part
of the friends of Israel. He replied, 'More tears.'"
Why more tears? What does he mean
by this?
Chapter Eleven
So Near and Yet So Far
Is Judaism evil and anti-God?
Learn the plain truth on this matter.
The facts revealed in this chapter will astound and
humble you.
Chapter Twelve
Has God Forsaken
His People?
"Some things are non-negotiable.
God's covenant with Israel is one
of them. How could
He have made Himself more clear?"
This is a question that needs answering once and for all from an honest
and biblically accurate study of God's Word.
This chapter provides a clear definitive answer from
just such a study.
Chapter Thirteen
Natural Children and
God's Children
"Romans
is Paul's theological masterpiece.
In the first eleven chapters, he lays out the absolute
essentials of our faith. In the last five chapters, he tells us how to
live. If we understand
Romans, we understand the gospel.
It is in Romans that Paul demonstrates that all have
sinned, Jew and Gentile alike. It is here that he opens up the incredible revelation
of justification by faith [the same identical faith Abraham
was saved by]. (Think
of trying to understand that without Romans!)
It is here that he speaks of our struggle with sin,
our victory over sin and life in the Spirit of God.
And then he brings it all to a climax with an in-depth
teaching about Israel.".
A proper understanding of what Paul teaches about Israel in Romans clears
up just which Israel Paul is teaching about in Romans-the
natural children of God-the Jews-or the spiritual Children
of God, the believers in Jesus.
Have we been wrong in our understanding of just who
Israel
is when that name is mentioned in the New Testament and
Romans in particular?
"Here is where the Church, which has been primarily
Gentile since the second century, has made a big mistake. She has been guilty of boasting over the natural
branches, forgetting her root and misinterpreting Israel's hardening."
Chapter Fourteen
"Thou Shalt Not Steal"
".We [Jewish believers in Jesus] are not as much
the fourth branch of Judaism as we are the Jewish part of
the Church! It is
only together with the rest of the Body that we will be
perfect.It has not been enough [for the Gentile church]
to spiritually apply God's promises to Israel to their
own lives. No! They have
stolen Israel's promises.Paul saw clearly from the Old
Testament, his only Bible, that God had a place for the
Gentiles in the Body right beside His people Israel.He saw
instead that the Church-Messiah's Body, the Congregation
of God-consisted of all believers from [both] Israel and
the nations [i.e. the Gentiles].But as people of God, let's
be godly people. "Thou shalt not steal," He says. It is enough that the Church can embrace these
glorious promises and partake in their nourishing sap. Why try to steal them entirely?.the Church has taken away God's promises to the Jews [not
literally, but through their biblically inaccurate doctrines]."
Want to see how this happened?
Chapter Fifteen
A Diabolical Plan
"With every fiber of his depraved, sinister being,
Satan despises the Jews. He hates them with a perfect hatred. Their total destruction is his goal. He
is the author of the spirit of anti-Semitism.
There is no other way to explain the venomous hostility
that has been hurled against the Jews by so many people
in so many countries for so many years.
Why the Jews?.anti-Semitism existed before
Christianity began.
Jerusalem and the Jewish people were on the
devil's hit list long before Jesus came into the world! (Read Ezra 4:12-16 and the book of Esther for
some good examples [Also read Josephus, A History of the
Jews]).
Hatred against the Jews has been too intense, too
cruel, too universal, too destructive to be explained in terms of divine punishment
alone. Yossel Rakover's
Holocaust prayer says it so painfully well:
You say, I know,
that we have sinned, O Lord.
It must surely be true!
And therefore we are punished?
I can understand that too! But I should like You
to tell me whether there
is any sin in the world deserving such a punishment as the
punishment we have received!
Anti-Semitism
has clearly overstepped the bounds of heavenly judgment
and chastisement.
But why? Who's responsible? Is it God, as many assume? Or is it really Satan. Read the evidence provided in this chapter and
decide for yourself.
Chapter Sixteen
Life From the Dead
".Did
they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?
Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation
has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious (Rom. 11:11)."
The
day will come when Gentile believers will make Israel
envious! The results
will be almost inexpressible.
"[For]
if their transgression means riches for the world, and their
loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches
will their fullness bring! (Rom. 11:12)."..
.Today,
there are men and women across the globe who are children
of the living God, the spiritual seed of Abraham, joint-heirs
with the Messiah, recipients of eternal life, blood-washed,
Spirit-filled, consecrated saints as a result of Israel's transgression.
How much greater will Israel's fullness bring!
At
this very moment, a continuous stream of praise ascends
to heaven in more than 2500 languages, and angels shout for joy as sinners repent worldwide
as a result of Israel's loss.
How much greater riches will Israel's fullness
bring!"
Find out how and what must be done first to
bring this about-to do this, you must order the book and
read it.
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