Compromising The Gospel So Not To Offend The Jews - Part 2
("The Passion Of The Christ")
(February 2004)

       

Why Part 2

             On February 1, 2004, I received an E-mail from Evan Gahr, contributing writer for Jewish World Review, suggesting I add a postscript to Part I of the message “Compromising The Gospel So Not To Offend The Jews.”  In Part I, Evan Gahr verbally lynched Paul Weyrich’s April 13, 2001 message, “Indeed He Is Risen,” in which  Mr. Weyrich expressed “Christ was crucified by the Jews.”  After all this time, Gahr wrote to let me know that in so many words, Paul Weyrich had added a postscript to his message and that I was “missing a key part” and could I post it to my message as well.  As I’m checking Weyrich’s site making sure this postscript existed, and it did, it dawned on me that we are approaching Passover/Easter season and the release of Mel Gibson’s controversial film “The Passion Of The Christ” on February 25, 2004, (Catholic’s Ash Wednesday).  Here we are again: the Jews attempting to re-write the Gospel to take away the offense from them having crucified Jesus the Christ, the one and only Messiah.

            First of all, no, Mr. Gahr, the key part is already in the message and any addendums are considered minor if even deemed necessary in the first place.  What Mr. Gahr wanted published was a statement by Paul Weyrich that was posted on his site (Freecongress.org) April 26, 2002 wherein Mr. Weyrich compromised the Gospel after all the attacks he suffered from the Jewish organizations in this country for stating that “Christ was crucified by the Jews.”  The statement read:

Statement by Paul M. Weyrich, President of the Free Congress Foundation, following his visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 26th, 2002

The visit to the Holocaust Museum was very moving. Once you see what the Jews went through at the time of Nazi Germany, it is so much easier to comprehend why the Jewish people feel they have to fight for their nation the way they do. And it is also more understandable why they are so sensitive to anything they feel is anti-Semitic.

In an unusual irony, the writer Evan Gahr, who once believed I was an anti-Semite, has helped to reconcile me with some in the Jewish community who believed the same of me. They now realize that we are in the vanguard of those who understand the threat that true believing Moslems represent to both Christians and Jews and that all of us who believe in our Judeo-Christian civilization must fight together to preserve it. I am grateful to Mr. Gahr for taking the initiative to enable us to take a special tour of the museum. And I can assure my Jewish friends that I will forever be more sensitive in my own writings to how they think and feel.  (Statement by Paul Weyrich, Free Congress Foundation at http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2002/020426pw.asp).       

Just what they wanted you to do! How my heart aches!  Paul Weyrich did compromise the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ!  Paul Weyrich is a party to allowing the Jewish people to re-write the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to reshape Christianity so not to be offended or be vilified for deicide.  God forbid!  Paul Weyrich wanted so much to not be labeled anti-Semite and to be reconciled to those who labeled him such (vocal Jewish leaders and organizations), he sold out.  He could not take the persecution leveled against him.  Perhaps Mr. Weyrich didn’t want his reputation and organization jeopardized and so he bowed to the pressure for thirty pieces of Evan Gahr’s silver.  Weyrich assured His Jewish friends that in the future he would compromise the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ when it comes to his writings – “he’ll forever be more sensitive…to how they think and feel.”

INTERJECTION: Going back to Weyrich’s statement: the simple remedy for the Jews’ sensitivity toward what they feel is anti-Semitic is to repent before God of their sins and those of their fathers and call on Yeshua as Savior and He’ll deliver them from the hatred leveled against them. Oh, but making a statement like this is offensive because they’re Jewish.  Yes, that's anti-Semitic.  Not so.

 Mr. Weyrich also said in his above statement that Moslems are the threat to both Christians and that together they must fight to preserve their Judeo-Christian values.  Well, Mr. Weyrich, Christians and Jews, those values will cease the rapid erosion when all of you will do spiritual housecleaning yourselves so that you get back on the road of holiness.  Christians and Jews have both failed miserably in their roles to bring the light of The Almighty God into the lives of those walking in darkness on this earth.  For that you, Moslems and all else are a threat to your Judeo-Christian values.

First Of All, Jesus Had To Die Violently

            It is a Biblical fact that God The Father sent Jesus to lay down His life (John 10:17-18) for the saving of all mankind that will believe, but someone had to take His life in a violent way because a massive heart attack or stroke would not have sufficed.  Heart attacks, strokes, the likes, would not have brought about the “shedding of blood” for the remission of sins for mankind’s reconciliation to God. 

His [Jesus] was not simply a natural death.  It was a ritual murder carried out by the authorities of Rome, engineered by the religious leaders of that day, but made necessary by the sins of all who ever lived.  Jesus was delivered up by His own people and put to death by a cruel political regime…(Holman Bible Dictionary, Trent C. Butler, General Editor.  Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN, p 775, 1991).      

Follow closely Matthew 23:27-39:

27-29

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
 

 

 

30

And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets
 

 

 

31-32

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
 

 

 

33

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
 

 

 

34

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city

 

Jesus was prophesying to them and about them what the Jews would do to Him and His followers

35

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth,  from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
 

 

Prophesied a curse to fall upon them

36

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
 

 

The curse to fall upon them

37-38

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
 

 

Barren; God-forsaken

39

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.

 

 

About That Curse In Matthew 27

A curse is payoff for sin.  It is divine justice – God’s style.  Curses are very, very real and they are caused by sin and the power of the curse is brought on by demons, and in this case, demons working through people in a hateful and harmful manner toward Jews.  Scriptural defined curses are as follows:

Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name (Jeremiah 32:18).

Render unto them a recompence [payment], O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Give them sorrow of heart [condemnation; fear; tragedy; frustration; hopelessness], thy curse unto them. Persecute [harass; pursue; stalk; and injure] and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD (Lamentations 3:64-66).          

No matter where the Jews go, to this day, they experience sorrow of heart and persecution since after the crucifixion of Messiah.

The Matthew 27 curse will remain upon the Jews until their salvation and you Christians know that but are too much of a spiritual coward to say it.

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a turmult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude [a massive amount], saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children (Matthew 27:24-25).

Curses don’t fall upon obedient people – they don’t fall causeless.  They fall upon the sinner.

As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come (Proverb 26:2).           

The angry Jewish crowd placed that curse upon themselves and their future – upon their children for generations to come, and it began to come to pass with the next generation – 40 years (Deuteronomy 2:14) later in 70 A.D when…

All of that and more is the unforeseen effect of the self-invoked curse upon the Jewish people

The Matthew 27:25 curse was not causeless and it therefore did drop on the heads of the Jewish people.  This self-invoked curse fell upon Israel because Israel was deep in sin and had been for about the space of 400 plus years during which time God ceased speaking to Israel through His prophets.  Absolutely not one word.  God’s only begotten Son was put to death by human beings, so quite naturally that curse did fall upon the heads of those named in the curse – the Jewish people and subsequent generations. God Almighty has to be the One to rescind that curse.  (That particular curse cannot be humanly rescinded except by salvation – being Born Again.)  The words to the dear Jewish people, (1) face it, you, the Jewish people did kill God’s only begotten Son; and (2) you’re wearing yourselves into the ground by attempting to avert anti-Semitism through discussion groups, speaking out against Mel Gibson’s film when what you’re really doing is driving a wedge between you and those Christian friends who are genuinely standing with you. You need to reel in those self-proclaimed secular Jewish zealots who call themselves your leaders when all they’re doing is wrecking the relationship by creating tension between Jews and Christians when they, as unlearned, are attempting to rewrite the New Testament by saying what certain New Testament Scriptures mean and what they don’t mean.  They are also heaping ruin and embarrassment upon the Jewish people with their fear-mongering behavior and torrent shouts of anti-Semitism at anybody or anything that “calls a spade a spade” in speaking the truth about Jews.  No people, including Jews, are immune to facts spoken about them that they themselves may deem unfavorable or harmful. In these instances the Jews loudly shout anti-Semitism, even when it is unfounded.  Out of control!  Absolutely out of control!  It’s fear.  The curse is in operation.

Answering  The “Rebbe With A Cause”

The simple and undeniable fact is that the Jews did not kill Jesus. He was condemned in a Roman court on a Roman charge, and put to death by a method of execution only used by the Romans, just as the two leading historians of the time, Josephus and Tacitus, expressly maintain. Jesus was put to death by Pontius Pilate, known as the Saddam Hussein of his time, a murderer of unspeakable cruelty. As I wrote in an earlier piece, ‘The idea that Pilate would take orders from the Jews about who should live and who should die is not just implausible but laughable.’ (“Mel, Where Art Thou?” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Rebbe With A Cause).  Beliefnet.com, February 2004).

It looks as though what Rabbi Boteach wrote in his earlier piece had not been thoroughly researched and thus must be considered fiction.  And, if the Jews didn’t have a certain amount of liberty during the Roman occupation, they first of all would never have been free to practice their faith much less go to the Temple on Sabbath.  The Romans had some respect for their religious conviction thus allowing them some religious prerogatives; and those they exercised when they chose to have Jesus crucified instead of Barabbas the real malefactor. 

  1. The simple and undeniable fact is: the Jews did kill Jesus.
     
  2. Jesus was tried twice, by both the Jewish Sanhedrin (Caiaphas the high priest, Scribes, and Elders) and it was they who handed Him over to the Roman governor on civil charges.  Jewish method of execution was by stoning and during the Roman occupation, it wasn’t lawful for them to stone anyone to death (John 19:31).  They were very cunning and used Pilate to do their dirty work (Luke 23:2) by accusing Jesus of civil crimes and that’s how it appears Pilate was taking orders from the Jews.

Rabbi Boteach, Jesus was not a criminal according to Roman law, but was made to look like one so that His death would come about  at the hands of the Romans and justly so:

And the whole multitude of them [Sanhedrin] arose, and led him unto Pilate.
And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting [persuading the people to follow Him instead of Caeser] the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King (Luke 23:1-2). 

You must understand too that the Sanhedrin (Jewish religions leaders) had some authority over the internal affairs of the Jews but could not carry out the death penalty without the approval of the Roman Governor which was why they took Jesus to Pilate and with the charges of sedition instead of blasphemy.  With those trumped-up charges, Jesus was guaranteed to be crucified.  Those religious leaders accused Jesus of sedition – preventing tribute to Caesar and assuming title of king; exciting the people throughout Galilee.  These accusations came from Jews, not Romans.  You have got to remember that before all of this, Jesus was forever spied on by the religious leaders and the people even made an attempt to stone Him to death (John 10:31-32) for the truths He was teaching and the miraculous works of God He was performing.  Yes, they were determined to get Him – to kill him.      

  1. There is no disputing that crucifying people was not a Jewish form of execution but was that of the Romans.  The Rabbi’s stated fact that only Rome could crucify is an attempt to justify that Jesus was crucified for sedition and not blasphemy – a civil crime and not a religious crime.  In other words, the Romans killed Jesus for political reasons and not the Jews charge of blasphemy.  Well, it’s like this:  Even though Jesus’ death was determined beforehand by God, it was woe unto those whose bloody hands would bring about his death – the accusers and executioners (Psalm 2:2-7).
     
  2. Pilate was a blood thirsty villain who hated Jews, but for the Scripture to be fulfilled with respect to the death of Messiah Jesus, you can bet God The Father softened Pilate’s heart for a period somewhat similar to how He hardened Pharaoh’s heart back in Exodus so that His prophetic Word could come to past.  Pilate had clear discernment with regard to Jesus’ innocence because he was constrained by God and thus acted as he did toward Jesus.  Too, during the Passover there was a Roman law whereby the Jews could choose one who would not be put to death and they chose Barabbas over Jesus and you know the rest.  True, Pilate and the Romans were brutes but there were certain things they had to adhere to because of edicts Caesar handed down concerning the people who were occupied.  (Pilate did violate some of the laws which was why when the Samaritans whom Pilate oppressed, appealed to Vitellius  the Governor of Syria, and Vitellius complained to Rome about the matter and thus Pilate was sent to Rome to answer charges against him.  He was never heard of again.)

Attempts To Rewrite The Gospel In Progress

            Now that we’re here at Passover/Easter time 2004, it has been published on the New York Times website that Roman Catholic actor/producer/director Mel Gibson, after much pressure from the Jewish organizations, has decided to take out the scene in his movie (“The Passion Of The Christ”) where the Jews pronounced the curse upon themselves in Matthew 27:25 (“Gibson To Delete A Scene In Passion” by Sharon Waxman, NYTimes.com, February 4, 2004).  It was reported that it was the mounting pressure concerning that scene that brought about Gibson’s decision.  (For centuries, the Matthew 27:25 Scripture, “His blood be on us and on our children” is blamed for stimulating violence against the Jewish people.)

  1. Anti-Defamation League (Abraham Foxman) requested Gibson to add a postscript to the film asking the viewers to not let the movie turn them “toward a passion of hatred” (Ibid.).
     
  2. Simon Wiesenthal Center (Rabbi Marvin Hier) wrote a letter to Mel Gibson that is published at WWW.Wiesenthal.com telling Gibson in the first paragraph that his film, “'The Passion of Christ'…portrays the Jews in a very negative manner and can once again stereotype them as being collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.”  In Rabbi Hier’s last paragraph he suggests Gibson  “convene a joint meeting of Jewish and Christian leaders to seek some compromise.”   Again, suggested an addendum or postscript at the end of the film condemning the “false charges of deicide leveled against the Jewish people….”

Question:  Where did the Rabbi get the notion that the Gospel account of Messiah Jesus’ death was a false charge of deicide?  Oh, I remember now, it was the Catholic Church who declared such at Vatican II.     

Declaration on the Relationship
of the Church to Non-Christian Religions

(Nostra Aetate)

            True, authorities of the Jews and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today.  Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the holy Scriptures.  All should take pains, then, lest in catechetical instruction and in the preaching of God’s Word they teach anything out of harmony with the truth of the gospel and the spirit of Christ.
            The Church repudiates all persecutions against any man.  Moreover, mindful of her common patrimony with the Jews, and motivated by the gospel’s spiritual love and by no political considerations, she deplores the hatred, persecutions, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source. (The Documents of Vatican II.  Walter M. Abbott, S.J., General Editor; Very Rev. Msgr. Joseph Gallagher, Translation Editor.  Association Press, pp 665-667, 1966.)

Note of caution, the Catholic Church and the Pope don’t speak for all Christians; only for Catholics and those non-Catholics who follow the Pope’s dictates. (1) THE POPE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS. (2) THE POPE DOES NOT SPEAK FOR THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST even though he and Catholics believe that he does. Dear Jewish people, your belief that the Catholic Church is keeper of the apostolic faith is why you believe that whatever the Catholic Church decrees goes for all Christians.  The Catholic Church is the “self-appointed” keeper of the apostolic faith, but God didn’t appoint the Catholic Church to that position, and you dear people need to leave Christians alone when it comes to New Testament teachings.

  1. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Rebbe With A Cause):  Believes that Gibson is chancing his career on depicting Jews as “demonic god-killers,” and also that the movie should be boycotted by all who hate bigotry.  Rebbe at first spoke admirably of the Mel Gibson he had come to know and then went on to say, “But all that is behind me now. Because whether Mel hit his head against a rock, or just decided to follow in the footsteps of his Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic father, the Mel Gibson who first charmed us as an innocent-looking Australian soldier in Gallipoli seems gone forever. In his place has arisen a kooky religious fundamentalist who seems intent on reversing the reforms of Vatican II, which officially absolved the Jews of deicide, and who seems intent on convincing the world that, indeed, the Jews killed Jesus.”( “Mel, Where Art Thou?” by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Rebbe With A Cause).  Beliefnet.com, February 2004). (Like the Rabbi really cares about Gibson’s career.)
     
  2. Rabbi Gary Brenton-Granatoor, ADL:    Felt that even without the blood curse the movie had more than enough other material in it to reinforce the negative Jewish image. He believes that many of the bloody scenes and details didn’t come from the Gospel accounts, but from the revelations/visions/writings of 19th Century nun Anne Catherine Emmerich  (“Corrected: Mel Gibson Mum on Controversial ‘Passion’ Scene”  by Reuters.  The New York Times, February 5, 2004,  www.NYtimes.com).

            A bit of information about Anne Catherine Emmerich, the nun who influenced Mel Gibson.  When the well-known poet of that time, Klemens Brentano, went to visit Anne Catherine Emmerich she told him that he’d been pointed out to her as the one who would help her carry out God’s will for her which was to write down the revelations and visions that had been made to her. Out of this came "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich."  Please, you’ve got to know something was demonically “fishy” about this whole thing.  This woman who is awaiting canonization in the Catholic Church

  1. supposedly conversed with Jesus when she was a child
  2. she prayed for the souls in Purgatory whom she often saw
  3. she had visible stigmata and the pain that went with it; as well as crosses impressed upon her breast

(WORD OF WARNING TO CHRISTIANS:  None of this stuff Protestants/Born Again Christians believe in and you have got to come to the realization that if Gibson was most inspired by this woman’s revelations and visions, this is not of God even with the sprinkling of truth in it.  You must stay away from it much less use it as a tool for evangelizing.  God has not lead a one of you to use this for evangelization and neither did HE lay it in your lap.  It was THE DEVIL HIMSELF.)

Untruths In All Of This

1.      Many Christian denominations now reject the idea of Jewish responsibility in the crucifixion of Jesus

2.      Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council declared that Jews were not collectively the blame for Jesus’ death and that it’s applicable to the Christian world’s adherence

3.      Small circle of Jews collaborated with the Romans to put Jesus to death

4.      The movie distorts the Scriptures and is accepted as Gospel

5.      Pilate did not take orders from the Jews about who and who not to kill

6.      Caiaphas spoke the curse on the Jewish people is incorrect

7.      The Jews’ being responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus is the biggest and most destructive lie in the history of the world

8.      The Jews did not kill Jesus

9.     In Jesus’ passion and the self-imposed curse of the Jews, the Gospel authors didn’t mean all Jewish people forever there after, but only the temple leaders

10.  Jesus’ crucifixion was for political reasons

11.  The guilt for Jesus’ death is more upon Christians than Jews

12.  God nailed Jesus to the cross

13.  We all killed Jesus

14.  Jesus’ death was not a murder but a gift

15.  Your sins are responsible for the crucifixion

The Truth Of The Matter Is…

            Christians are not responsible for Jesus’ death.  It is heart-wrenching to hear the “goody-two shoes” and the “know-it-all” preachers and other so-called Christians’ attempts at appeasing the Jews by saying that “Christians are equally responsible for killing Jesus”; or “We all killed Him”; or “The Bible names God as the one responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion.”  If we all killed Jesus, the curse would be on all of us including the first apostles, but never did they lay claim to having killed Jesus. That were the case, who would have been saved after Jesus’ death if the curse had fallen on everybody Jesus died for?  Why would God bless the non-Jews with salvation, the Holy Ghost and all if they were equally guilty as the Jews of killing His Son just a few months prior to Pentecost, and yet left the curse upon the Jews? Something is wrong with that. Why didn’t the Apostle Peter and the martyred Stephen in Acts tell the non-Jews that they killed Jesus too instead of singling out the Jews when they made statements such as…

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain (Acts 2:22-23).

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:30-31).

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 (Acts 7:52).

The Apostles didn’t tell non-Jews in the book of Acts that they killed Jesus because that would have been an untruth.  Yes, God foreknew that Jesus was going to die because He has foreknowledge of everything.  But, that doesn’t absolve the Jews alone from been responsible for putting Jesus to death.  The lie about us all having killed Jesus is right from hell and you, Christians, have bought into it just to appease the Jews so that their feelings aren’t hurt and that you have a continued relationship with them.  (There is nothing wrong with Christians having a relationship with the Jews and there should be.  But, the problem comes when Christians compromise the Gospel and lie about certain things to not hurt their feelings because of the years of persecution by so-called Christians who weren’t Christians at all.)

            Mike Evans, who seemingly is always starved for attention, said in his WorldNet Daily column that…

Christians are called upon to comfort the Jewish people, and to show compassion, not controversy…Instead of demonizing, degrading or patronizing the Jewish people, I truly believe that Christians need to ask forgiveness for the terrible sins committed against them [Jews] throughout history in the name of Jesus (“Christ-Killers” by Mike Evans, WorldNet Daily.com, February 20, 2004).

This is taking it entirely too far.  This is over the edge.  True Christians love the Jews, but why must they be put on a pedestal or handled with kid gloves.  Only Christ goes on the pedestal.  Besides, the Jews should be apologizing to Christians for what their forefathers and they did to Christ and how they have treated Christians over the couple thousand years based on the Talmud.  What do Evangelical Christians have to apologize to the Jew for?  These Christians were not a part of the Inquisitions and Crusades.  Those were Catholics and Catholics are in a whole different sphere.  Long before the Reformation, Catholics were persecuting so-called heretics because they weren’t abiding by the Catholic Church. So, Mike Evans, you need to pay the Pope a little visit giving him that message about apologizing.  It cannot be said enough: as True Christians we must love the Jews and stand with them to the bitter end but without letting them influence us negatively toward God’s Word and them interpreting New Testament Scripture incorrectly – or even rewriting it.

            The Jews’ feelings are supposed to be hurt about this matter so that they seek God with their whole hearts, minds, and souls. That’s the idea. That’s God’s plan to bring them to salvation.  He wants them to call out to Him for the truth and not the truth as the Talmud and those Rabbis have given them for the last couple thousand years, and Christians must not interfere with soft words as oppose to words of truth that cut to the core.

            Jesus prophesied his own death and He did not include the non-Jews as being responsible for it.

And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).

For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day (Mark 9:31)

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again (Mark 10:33-34).

In all of that, Jesus never linked Christian to His death, but He did link the Jews. Only one nation of people is responsible for Jesus’ death and it’s the Jews, not everybody else including Christians.  Please, pay no attention to the fact that Billy Graham said:

we are all responsible for Jesus’ death, because we all sinned (“Passion Spotlights Religious Differences” by Darren Barbee, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, February 15, 2004).

Pay no attention to Mel Gibson himself  speaking out on national television that “We all killed Jesus” (ABC’s Prime Time with Diane Sawyer, Monday, February 16, 2004).  That is not Scriptural.  None of this changes one Gospel fact that only the Jews are responsible.  In fact, statements such as that are nothing but lies.  All preachers and teachers, and all else, saying the very same thing are lying as well.  Mind-boggling!  Chuck Colson also said neither the Jews nor Romans caused Jesus’ death.  He went on to say that those who take Scripture reading seriously have always known who killed Jesus and that Christians should make it clear to friends and neighbors that we are responsible for the death of Jesus.

Man alive!  Chuck Colson needs Jesus. No sir, he is not correct.  The truth is, the sinful human beings reaped the benefit of salvation by the death of Jesus Christ, but the guilt is not on the sinful human beings; it’s on the Jews who sent Jesus to His death.  Someone had to have enough hatred in them to do it and it was they because of the sinful state they were in.  When you so-called Christians lie like that to soften the truth to the Jews, you make God’s Word appear as though it is of little effect.  Please, how else was God going to make a people His people who didn’t even know Him? How else was God going to establish a new and better covenant? 

            You so-called Christians who believe that we all killed Jesus are trying to be kind to the Jewish people but that’s not reassuring – that’s deceit, and it’s deceit because you are leaving the Jews in a condemned state (John 3:18).  (I surely wouldn’t want these people for a friend.) That’s partly why you can’t be trusted – you are willing to compromise God’s Word so not to offend the Jewish people.  Liers!  Can’t be trusted.

            Dear Christian brothers and sisters, because Jesus died for your sins that did not make you guilty of His death.  You who walk around saying “we all killed Jesus” are wrong.  It is not Scriptural.  That’s Satan playing tricks on your reprobate mind.  You are deceived!  You benefited from Jesus’ death at the hands of the lost house of Israel whom God had ceased speaking to because of their heightened rebellion and unashamed sins.  Do you remember the vineyard parable in Mark 12:1-12?

And he [Jesus] began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.      
            And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant [Prophet], that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.      
            And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.       
            And again he sent unto them another servant [Prophet]; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.     
            And again he sent another [Prophet]; and him they killed, and many others [Prophets]; beating some, and killing some.        
            Having yet therefore one son [Jesus Christ], his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
            But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him [Jesus, the Son of Godt], and the inheritance shall be ours.   
            And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.        
            What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others [destroyed His relationship with the Jews and established one with Gentiles – non-Jews].      
            And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner [Psalm 118:22]:           
            This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?            
            And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them [the Jews]: and they left him, and went their way (Mark 12:1-12).

            Jesus died for repentance and forgiveness of your sins – Jews and Christians alike (Acts 5:31) and to reconcile you to the Father.  For this to come about, Jesus, the Lamb of God had to be the permanent sacrifice for sin atonement forever in the place of the umpteen bulls and goats (Hebrews 10:12) that were used under the Old Covenant.  Christians, it is The Lord exercising His lovingkindness by having sent His Son to die on the cross for the sins of mankind.  It is The Lord exercising His just judgment upon the Jewish people for having killed His son, their Savior as they had a history of killing God’s prophets.  You Christians who reaped the benefit of salvation where you sowed nothing are MINIMIZING God’s grace in the earth by not glorying in the fact that you understand and know why God has acted as He has for both Christians who were brought into God’s beautiful family and the Jews being judged for their sin of crucifying Jesus through a curse that they brought upon their whole nation for generations.

            God wants Christians to be grateful for Calvary but you instead are sitting on a chair of stupidity screaming “we all killed Him”!  You are MINIMIZING the almighty hand of God at work in the earth.  Yes, God brought you into His beautiful family and it wasn’t because you killed His Son.  Be grateful.  Receive God’s work with your whole heart by ending the lie that you're responsible for His death.

These Fears Are Legitimate

            These fears of the Jewish people are real; and they are real because of the Matthew 27:25 self-invoked curse.  In their own words, Jews fear that Gibson’s movie “The Passion Of The Christ” might…

Personally, I share those fears with the Jewish people because of the demonic roots this film was birth from.  It’s not the New Testament but the demonic visions and revelations of stigmatic Anne Catherine Emmerich, the heavy emphasis upon Mary and the fact that the apostate Christian church is in a counterfeit blissful state which means they really cannot trust where their own heads are.  Please, believing that Christians killed Jesus – my word, they are blinded to the truth of God’s Word.  That’s not right.  Something is terribly wrong with the so-called Christians.

Good Evangelism Tool, Yes Or No

            The Evangelical Christianity community is elated to the ump degree about Mel Gibson’s movie.  They whole-heartedly embrace this Catholic film.  For Mel Gibson to supposedly have had the Holy Ghost all over him when making this film, the Holy Ghost must have taken leave of absence when his spokesman (Alan Nierob) made the statement that their interest was more about marketing than evangelizing.  If the Holy Ghost was in this production, why would evangelization take second place to marketing?  To money?  The Christians are okay with this?  Well, why not since the Christians are okay with Gibson the somewhat renegade Catholic being behind the production of the film that is said to be filled with Catholic teachings like the Stations Of The Cross, Mary being at the center, and again heavily influenced by the visions and revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich. 

A quick look at the Stations Of The Cross.  It is fourteen eventful steps of the Passion.  Some true according to the Gospel and the rest untrue according to the Gospel.  They begin with…

Station

 

Comment

1

Jesus condemned to die………............

Gospel

2

Jesus carries His cross………………..

Simon told to help Him from the beginning.  He evidently was too weak to carry it after the horrible beating.

3

Jesus falls the first time…………..........

Where is this in the Gospel?

4

Jesus meets His mother………............

Gospel speaks of Mary after crucifixion according to John 19:25, not on the way

5

Simon helps Jesus Carry His cross...................................................

Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26; John 18:39

6

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus……..

Who is this person?

7

Jesus falls the second time……………

Where is this in the Gospel?

8

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem….......................................

They were following Him according to Luke 23:28

9

Jesus falls a third time………………..

Where is this in the Gospel?

10

Jesus is stripped………………………

Matthew 27:28 used the word stripped before the crown of thorns were placed on His head

11

Jesus is nailed to the cross……………

Gospel

12

Jesus dies on the cross………………..

Gospel

13

Jesus is taken down from the cross…..

Catholics claim His body was laid in the arms of Mary, but that is nowhere in the Gospel.

14

Jesus is laid in the tomb………………

Gospel

            Those of this Church-hour are so blinded to the truth that they hold fast to such a movie of this demonic nature that they’d use it for evangelism.  Yes, the Jews should be afraid they might turn to hatred.  Who ever expected today’s Church to be so receptive to such a film.  Hey, but what do you expect from a backslidden Church – an apostate church such as today’s.  They just might do anything because they are missing the real Jesus themselves and the holy walk that goes with Him.  Lord, Lord, Lord.

  1. Morris H. Chapman (Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention) said:  “I don’t know of anything since the Billy Graham crusades that has had the potential of touching so many lives. It’s like the Lord somehow laid in our lap something that could be a great catalyst for spiritual awakening in this nation” (“Some Christians See ‘Passion’ As Evangelism Tool”, Laurie Goodstein, NYtimes.com, February 5, 2004).
     
  2. They are merchandizing:  Lapel pins in Aramaic; witnessing cards; door hangers; one million tracts for the movie-goers; CD-Rom featuring a downloadable picture of a nine-inch nail similar to what went into Jesus’ flesh.
     
  3. American Tract Society:  On the Web site (http://www.atstracts.org/), “The Passion Of The Christ” movie is “One of the greatest opportunities for evangelism in 2,000 years!  Don’t Miss It!”
     
  4. Pastor Cory Engel:  “Here’s a chance for us to use a modern-day technique to communicate the truth of the Bible” (Associated Press. “Gibson Film Gets Huge Marketing Effort” by Rachel Zoll, February 5, 2004).
     
  5. Outreach Ministry Inc:  The film is “perhaps the best outreach opportunity in 2000 years” (Ibid.).
     
  6. International Bible Society:  Will sell a version of the New Testament that has images from the film; movie-related jewelry, prayer cards, tracts, and pamphlets (according to Associated Press, “Gibson Film Gets Huge Marketing Effort” by Rachel Zoll, February 5, 2004).
     
  7. National Association of Evangelicals (Kyle Fisk):  “Churches are intending to use this film to share their faith with people in their community who would never go into a church but would take a free ticket to go to ‘The Passion.’”

Gee-whize, no wonder the churches themselves have never ventured out into the communities to share The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They’ve been too lazy.  But now, they think the so-called movie of the century can do the job for them and all they have to do to have a great awakening is to give out a free movie ticket and a Gospel tract.  Lord, Lord, this is what The Church has come to in her apostate days.  She indisputably needs evangelization herself instead of trying to evangelize those whom they consider lost.  Christians, please rethink this.  Using Gibson’s film to show your faith in Jesus is a very week argument.  Why do you need a bloody movie, LAZY CHURCH?  Remember Barnabas and Paul at Iconium speaking to Jews and Greeks and the people believed the Word (Acts 14:1)?  You Preachers need to do some soul searching in that lifeless Christian walk of yours.  Oh, I know: you think you’re on fire because of your 20,000-member churches and that you must be doing things right.  Satan blesses too, remember.  You have gotten away from the simple but yet very powerful Gospel going forth without the motion picture tool or any other tools for the drawing in of God’s people to His Kingdom.

      No wonder the Jews are afraid of how you Christians might sway after soaking up this movie.  I’m afraid too – I’m afraid for you and the path you’re dangerously trekking.  I am scared for you, Church. 

Conclusion

            True, there is a lot wrong with Gibson’s film being that he was heavily influenced by the revelations and visions of the 19th Century nun, but  by Ab Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League going so far as to pay a visit to the Vatican in Rome to express his concerns is downright pitiable.

I’m reaching out to the Catholic Church and saying, ‘It’s time for you to step up to the plate.  Mr. Gibson is challenging your teaching’…He is marketing this film as the Gospel truth, the historic truth in a way contrary to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and church guidelines on the presentation of the Passion (“Jewish Leader Visits Rome, Discusses ‘Passion’ With Vatican Officials” by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service.  CatholicNews.com, February 17, 2004).

Mr. Foxman, you’re spinning your wheels.  This is a Catholic film even though Gibson is a renegade Catholic.

Foxman said he appreciated the fact that many Vatican officials and other Christian leaders felt the film cast the blame for Christ’s death on all human beings and on their sins (Ibid.).   

Mr. Foxman, as already said, that’s an untruth and I’m so very sorry you and the Jewish people have sucked that one up, and as for the Catholic Church and the Pope, you must learn is not God’s representative on earth for all Christians apart from those who are ecumenically involved with them. Jesus’ mission on earth was to establish the Kingdom of God – a spiritual kingdom with no officers or a pope; with no headquarters in Rome or anywhere else; and certainly no association with the world. (The spiritual kingdom of God/Heaven consists of believers who believe in the divine mission of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and in His soon return.) With that having been established, it can be inflexibly declared that the Catholic Church and the Pope are not keepers of the apostolic faith and all Christians don’t fall under them.  Leave off believing that what the Pope says in “gospel” and every single Christian on this earth must adhere to it.

The Jews fought against God when Christianity began and they are fighting God here in the end time by attempting to rewrite the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they no longer wear the brand of deicide.  I would like to know why the Jews have been in Diaspora for 2000-plus years if it wasn’t because they rejected the son of God, Jesus, and gave Him over to be crucified.  The Jews may not have personally driven those nails into Jesus’ flesh, but before God and any judge, one is just as guilty for ordering someone’s death as is the one who actually carries out the order.  Jesus said Himself when speaking to Pilate: 

Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin (John 19:11).   

With that said, the word to the Jewish people is, no nation of people on this earth is a perfect people without grotesque sin, and that includes you.  The Jewish people have never been perfectly sinless people.  You have a history of killing God’s holy people because you wanted to remain in your sin, so why wouldn’t you be guilty of putting your own Messiah to death?

King David had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, placed on the frontline of a hot battle to make sure that he was killed so that he could take Bathsheba for himself.  That worked because Uriah was killed by the hands of the warriors of Ammon and not King David himself.  Nevertheless, Uriah was out of the picture – dead and King David didn’t have to get blood on his hands.  But, God didn’t see David as not being the murderer.  God sent Nathan the prophet (II Samuel 12:9) with these words: “Wherefore has thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou [David] has killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.”  King David ordered Uriah’s death and was as guilty of his death as though he’d done it with his own hands, and was cursed for it. King David “killed Uriah.” The Jews ordered Jesus’ death and are as guilty of His death as though they had done it with their own hands instead of the Romans, and are cursed for it.  It was a Jew, Judas, that betrayed Jesus and it was the High Priest, Caiaphas, who represented the Jewish people, and along with other Jews that plotted Jesus’ arrest and delivered Him up to Pilate in the Hall of Judgment.  The Jews did kill Jesus.  Face it.

            True Christians do not hold Jesus’ death against the Jews or they wouldn’t be True Christians.  But, on the other hand, True Christians will not compromise any part of the Gospel to appease modern-day Jews’ fears of anti-Semitism.  The Jews must understand that it is and will continue to be the true Christians standing with them all the way no matter what.  (As a True Christian, I am ashamed that our dear friends, the Jews, want us to choose between them and what we believe in by compromising the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Is that a friend or foe?  If a wedge is driven between us it is because of your demand that as a Christian I should compromise my faith to calm your fears.  Persecution is coming for you and for the Christians so face it.  The world doesn’t want your kind nor my kind.)

 

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