Don’t Refrain to Stand Against Evil Out of Fear of Being Called an Antisemite

Proverbs 29:25 says: “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

The fear of man brings a snare (that is, a trap). That includes fear of any person or group- including those whom one naturally sees as their own people, people who are powerful, and/or people whom there is pressure not to ever criticize.

Malachi 3:15 says (and this rebuke is specifically given concerning the pathetic state of Israel and the great wickedness abounding therein): “And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.”

Blessing evil Jewish people and refraining to stand against their wickedness is a snare which has caused many to be complicit in sin and has been a key ingredient in many losing their soul. There are a multitude of examples of this in the Bible. Here are just a few.

Mark 15:11-15: “But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.”

Acts 12:1-3: “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)”

This was one of many actions over an evil course which ruined Herod.

Felix the Roman Governor also chose an evil course which was highlighted by an evil desire to show partiality to the Jews.

Acts 24:24-27: “And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he (Paul) reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.”

Here are some examples of people who got it right in not refraining to stand against evil out of fear of being called an antisemite.

Acts 7:51-54 (this is Stephen before the Sanhedrin- the most powerful Jews of his time): “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.”

And we know that they proceeded to have Stephen killed.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 (this is from the Apostle Paul, who was Jewish, to the Thessalonian Christians): “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”

Understand this well: Nobody can help being born Jewish. Being born Jewish does not in itself make one evil nor does it make one righteous. Nobody should be treated in a spiteful manner nor treated preferentially for being Jewish. Jews in ancient Israel had an advantage in knowing and acceptably worshiping the true God- though many Jews even in ancient times yet failed in this and went to hell. Salvation is of the Jews- because salvation is in the Jewish Messiah. It makes perfect sense that the Jewish people who do not obey His Gospel would be prime candidates to be especially great instruments in harming and deluding the world.

Due to the Jewish nation’s overall rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, being born Jewish turned from being a spiritual advantage to a hindrance (except into a home where Jesus is faithfully worshiped as the Messiah). Jews now have an especially great hole to dig out of due to the great wickedness and spiritual darkness which the Jewish people overall have plunged into. Though no individual should be prematurely judged as being a deceitful schemer and false accuser, such behavior is especially very common among the Jews.

At the very beginning of the Christian church each and every disciple of Jesus was also a circumcised Jew. All Christians had to be circumcised Jews before God accepted Cornelius and those with him without circumcision in Acts chapter 10. After that point, and the conference shortly afterwards recorded in Acts chapter 15 (which confirmed in a more official way that uncircumcised Gentiles could become Christians without converting to Judaism), Christian fellowships were then a mix of uncircumcised Gentiles not practicing Judaism combined with Jewish Christians who practiced the Jewish rituals (like circumcising their children, keeping the Jewish feasts, and offering sacrifices in the Temple- as it is seen how the Apostle Paul was part of offering sacrifices in the Temple in Acts 21). The Jewish Christians were only then supposed to keep the Jewish rituals due to what they signified- not because they were supposed to think that the rituals atoned for sin like many carnal Jews thought they did. In AD 70, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans and there was no Levitical Priesthood functioning anymore. This meant that the Jewish Christians could not keep the Jewish rituals properly anymore. Therefore, the Jewish Christians were at that time also practically freed from obligation to keep these rituals. This is why no one should try to keep the Jewish rituals at all now.

The Lord’s prescribed worship is no longer centered at Jerusalem like it was until AD 70 when the Jewish Temple was destroyed. His prescribed worship is now dispersed in whatever Christian churches exist which He deems faithful throughout the world. The Book of Acts demonstrates that before AD 70 even the Christian churches among the Gentiles were accountable to the Christian church at Jerusalem (and the Jewish Christians were still going there at least three times a year for the Jewish feasts). Read Acts 21 and note how even at that point (which was probably in the latter AD 50s) the Christian church was still centered there.

Many not only wrongly think the times of the Gentiles began after the cross in approximately AD 30 rather than in AD 70, they also wrongly think that the times of the Gentiles ended when Israel became a modern nation in 1948. Not so. His prescribed worship has not yet returned to being centered at Jerusalem. Israel becoming a political nation again in 1948 then was not a significant prophetic event. That was totally of the devil and not of God. The Jews actually do not even control the Temple Mount at this day. The times of the Gentiles continue yet.