Because we live in a moral universe, the application of the moral law makes a difference. Ethical monotheism breaks the cycle of poverty and contributes to the development of nations, the transforming of pagan nations into civilized nations.

The proclamation of the good God and the obligations of a moral universe have brought much animus and hatred to the Jews. This is the root of anti-Semitism. The good God who established a moral universe demands all human beings conform to the standards of the universe. Why? Because, first, it is the right and good thing to do, and second, it brings good consequences: life, justice, social peace, etc.

God will judge all human beings by the moral laws of the universe. If they reject the moral law and moral universe, God will judge them against their own stated standards. Romans 2:1,12 states,

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things … For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. (ESV)

Pagans, who love corruption and unbridled sex, who treat human life cheaply, hate the moral God, the moral universe and those who proclaim and model the same.

Anti-Semitism is rooted in hatred of the Judeo-Christian worldview of ethical monotheism: there is one true God and He is good. The universe He created manifests moral law as much as natural law.

Ethical monotheism, a gift of the Jews

A quotation from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops sums up the argument: “It was Judaism that brought the concept of a God-given universal moral law into the world. … The Jew carries the burden of God in history [and] for this has never been forgiven.”[1]

George Gilder writes in his book The Israel Test,

Jewish ethical monotheism is a basic gift and goad alike to gentiles and Jews who have accepted a relativist morality and philosophy that condones sexual immorality, abortion, and other convenient forms of hedonism. Ethical monotheism is a cherished contribution to humankind and a resented standard of unattainable righteousness. By evoking faith in the meaning and regularity of the cosmos, it is crucial to Jewish science and business and indeed to all human achievement.[2]

No one professes atheism for metaphysical reasons. The reality in front of them is sufficient to establish the existence of God (Romans 1:18-20). People profess atheism for moral reasons. They deny God’s existence to get away from a moral universe. We have written about this elsewhere.

Perhaps one of the most honest people to state the moral rationale for his denial of God is Aldous Huxley. In Confessions of a Professional Free-Thinker, Huxley wrote,

I had reasons not to want the world to have meaning, and as a result I assumed the world had no meaning, and I was readily able to find satisfactory grounds for this assumption … for me, as it undoubtedly was for most of my generation, the philosophy of meaninglessness was an instrument of liberation from a certain moral system. We were opposed to morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.

Hitler hated the Jews because he hated God

Adolph Hitler was equally clear that the root of his hatred of Christians and Jews was their ethical monotheism. He writes, “The greatest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity.” Why did he come to this conclusion? Because God is a moral Being who puts a crimp on human license. Hitler described the Almighty as “the God of the deserts, that crazed, stupid, vengeful, Asiatic despot, with the power to make laws … that poison with which both Jews and Christians have spoiled and soiled the free, wonderful instincts of man ….”

So there you have it. Why do people hate Jews and their cousins the Christians? Because they worship the God who is GOOD, who created a moral universe. This God puts a damper on the pagan behavior of following one’s instincts.

Why is there so much heat and fire, globally, over the issue of abortion? Because a universe that celebrates human life puts a crimp on sexual freedom, challenging the practice of sex without responsibility.

Do we as Christians understand what it means that God is good and that we live in a moral universe? Or have we adapted to the spirit of the age that recognizes only moral relativism? Are we teaching our children that we live in a moral universe and it is better to be good than handsome or beautiful, better to be virtuous than successful, better to be kind and compassionate than to have things?

For more on this see: Sexual Anarchy: Judeo-Christian Sexuality as Deviant.

• Darrow Miller

 

[1] Dennis Prager & Joseph Telushkin’s Why the Jews, pg. 14

[2] 1.1.1.   George Gilder. The Israel Test: Why the World’s Most Besieged State is a Beacon of Freedom and Hope for the World Economy. Encounter Books. Kindle Edition, p. 23.

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