In the last blog, we talked about why people hate the Jewish people: because of their worldview and belief that God’s universe is a moral one.  We also looked into the Nazi agenda to rid the world of the Jews and Christians, anyone bearing witness to the One true God.

In this blog, we will delve a bit deeper into the effects of the sacred-secular divide on the church in Germany so as to hopefully bring us some needed perspective as believers in our own nation. We will also wrap up this series with an exploration of Paul’s description of degeneration as given in Romans 1 and a set of possible actions you as a believer can courageously take in order to stand with the Jews in this critical time.

The Sacred-Secular Divide in the Church

Many Germans at the time of the Third Reich professed Christianity and were members of the German (state) Church. In 1939 Germany was considered a “Christian nation.” Ninety-five percent of Germans were professed Christians (54% Protestant and 41% Catholic). They would have been happy if the Jews had just kept their Jewish beliefs in the privacy of their own homes and not brought their convictions to the marketplace and public square. 

Many of these professed Christians were under the influence of the sacred-secular divide (SSD) – the Greek idea that there was a division between the so-called sacred realm and secular realm. Another way of saying this is that these believers were dualistic. They did not understand that the spiritual realm and the material realm are all under God’s domain thus, they went along with the extreme cultural pressure to agree with the racism and brutality of the Third Reich all the while professing Jesus in their hearts. They were good Germans in their public life, voting for Adolph Hitler to be the Chancelor of the Third Republic and professing Christ in their hearts and privacy of their own homes.

The motto of those dualistic Christians was, “The swastika on our breasts, the cross in our hearts” (J. S. Conway, The Nazi Persecution of the Churches 1933-1945, 45). Stop and consider this motto. These people were endorsing the genocide of their Jewish neighbors and yet were able to reconcile that with their Christian faith by compartmentalizing their love for Jesus saying that He lived in their hearts. They were “Christians” in their heart and good Nazis in their public lives. Their lives and minds were divided. Because of this compartmentalization in their lives, they gave no thought to the implications of electing a mass murderer for their leader.

Many Germans wanted German Jews to cease to be Jews and simply embrace their identity as Germans. There was no place in Germany for the worldview and moral framework of the Jews, just as in the USA today there is no place for the Biblical worldview and moral framework. Tragically in Germany there were only a few professed Christians who held to the comprehensive Biblical worldview with its concept of a moral universe.

Today, a vast majority of Christians in the West and globally are smitten by the sacred-secular divide. Dr. Jeff Myers describes this as a mind virus (Myers, The Secret Battle of Ideas About God: Overcoming the Outbreak of Five Fatal Worldviews, 58). Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul calls “the stronghold of the mind.” Their faith is a private thing and is seen as having no place in the marketplace and the public square. How susceptible are these nations to being overrun by the spirit of the age and the aggressive advance of antisemitism?

People Are Atheists for Moral Instead of Metaphysical Reasons

It is my thesis that people hate Jews because people want to deny the existence of a moral God and thus a moral universe. People therefore declare that they are atheists, but their declaration is most often for moral not metaphysical reasons. As Dennis Peacocke says, “The mind justifies what the heart has chosen” (See chapter 6 from Peacocke, Winning the Battle for the Minds of Men). People do not want there to be a Creator God who rightfully governs a moral universe because that would have major personal implications for them.

As all human beings have been made to worship, if they do not direct their worship to the One true God, then they will direct their worship elsewhere. They will be idolaters and worship created things rather than the Creator. The Apostle Paul made this observation 2000 years ago. Read his words in Romans 1:19-25.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

In this passage, Paul is telling the reader that creation reveals God to us but that people who choose to deny God’s existence exchange the glory of God for idols and thus are given over to their lusts.

A contemporary of Hitler’s atheistic era was D. M. S. Watson, the Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College, London (1921 to 1951), who admitted publicly that, “Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or . . . can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible” (David Meredith Seares Watson, [August 10, 1929]: 231–234. “Adaptation.” Nature 124, no. 3119).

Watson is refreshingly honest in his statement saying that people accept evolution not because of facts or evidence but because they choose not to believe in God and have to justify that choice in some way. We can see how this choice to deny the existence of God has become institutionalized all around us. Most profoundly, it is seen in state-sponsored education and throughout the culture at large.

In this system, we are taught that evolution is no longer a theory, but a fact. On what grounds? Not based on evidence! No, the state schools are teaching the next generation a new faith system, one that exchanges the glory of God for the image of men and animals. The idea that our public schools are neutral is completely false.

Another Western philosopher and prolific writer promoting this pagan mindset was Aldous Huxley. In his 1937 book Ends and Means, he is very honest about why he is an atheist, it is for pagan sexuality. Note Huxley preferred to entertain the idea that his life has no meaning than accept the concept that we live in a moral universe. Why? So that he and others who lived like him could live out their erotic passions, their basic animal instincts.

For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom; …. The supporters of these systems claimed that in some way they embodied the meaning (a Christian meaning, they insisted) of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever. (Huxley, Ends and Means, 273).

Huxley in essence said that if he and the people who wanted the same ends as him could erase meaning from existence by espousing the random evolution of the material world, then they could erase the God of the Bible in the same breath. Again, in Huxley’s case we see him exchanging the glory of God for the worship of man and animals, thus consciously forfeiting any significance he might find in the reality that human beings are made imago Dei (in the image of God).

However, as Paul argues, and creation witnesses, God’s workmanship reveals His existence and something of His nature and character so that people are without excuse. From the revelatory point of view of the created order, there is no excuse for a human to deny God!

So why do we deny him? For moral reasons! We want to live in a universe without moral restraint. We want to be “free”, just like Hitler, to live a libertine life, without moral responsibilities. Do we really realize what kind of an exchange we make for the sake of our sexual freedom? Have we considered that a life without boundaries is a life without consequences? Have we stopped to think that a life without consequences is an inconsequential life? Indeed, this is what Huxley was advocating for, the exchange of meaning and existential significance for sexual freedom.

Huxley’s denial has led to a new era where sexual promiscuity is considered normal, and the bounds of license are continuously expanded. Children are increasingly sexualized. The so called “healthcare” system is making an industry of “gender-affirming surgery,” mutilating perfectly healthy bodies of children and adults for a profit. Women are commoditized and sexual deviancy is marketed by Hollywood. 

The denial or acceptance of God and His Truth effects everything. Dr. Jeff Myers, of Summit Ministries sees worldview problems at the root of these issues:

It is about everything, everywhere – a pitched battle between worldviews involving issues of God, justice, force, genocide, oppression, corruption, religion, and the nature of truth itself. (Jeff Myers, Should Christians Support Israel?, 14).

What is the root of antisemitism? It is nothing less than a revolt against God and a moral universe. It is rooted in the desire to rid the world of the Judeo-Christian worldview and as the late Francis Schaeffer would say, the God who is there.

The World Curses the Jews Because of the Gift That the Jews Gave to the World

What is the root of Jew hatred? The world hates the Creator God and the moral universe, thus they want to erase the existence of any people or people group who resist their unbelief and their “rights” to an amoral lifestyle. 

Dr. Gene Edward Veith Jr. is a retired professor of literature, a cultural commentator and author. As Thomas Cahill helped me understand the gift of the Jews, Veith helped me understand that it was that same gift, a revelation of the living God and the nature of the moral universe, which is the source for Jew hatred. Veith writes in his book Modern Fascism: The Threat to the Judeo-Christian Worldview: 

Racism alone cannot explain the virulence of Nazi Anti-Semitism. What did they see in the Jews that they thought was so inferior? What was the Jewish legacy that in their mind, so poisoned western culture? What were the Aryan ideals that, the Nazis sought to restore, once the Jews and their influence were purged from western culture? 

The fascists aligned themselves not only against the Jews but against what the Jews contributed to western civilization. A transcendent God, who reveals a transcendent moral universe, was anathema to the fascists. Such transcendence, they argued, alienates human beings from nature and from themselves. Fascist intellectuals sought to forge a new spirituality of eminence, focused upon nature, human emotions, and the community. The fascists sought to restore the ancient pre-Christian consciousness, the ancient mythic sensibilities, in which individuals experience unity with nature, with each other, and with their own deepest impulses. 

Fascism was essentially a spiritual movement. It was a revolt against the Judeo-Christian tradition, that is to say, against the Bible. Some fascists believe that Christianity could be purged of its Jewish elements; others believed it should be completely replaced. Some advocated a syncretic Christianity revising the faith to make it accord with the new culture. Others sought completely different kinds of religious experience. The fascist rebellion against transcendence restored the ancient pagan consciousness. With it came barbarism, a barbarism armed with modern technology and intellectual sophistication. The liquidation of the transcendent moral law and “Jewish” conscience allowed the resurgence of the most primitive and destructive emotions, the unleashing of original sin (Gene Edward Veith Jr., Modern Fascism: The Threat to the Judeo-Christian Worldview, 14).

What is the deep root of antisemitism? People want a license to live life without any restrictions, especially sexual limitations. They would rather live in a universe without purpose and moral framework. This is provided by the pagan deities! Thus, they would prefer to bow down and worship them.

It was the Jews who introduced the monotheistic God who provided humanity with a moral universe. For this gift, they are considered by some to be a curse!

Our current culture has denied God and thus has been restored to a primitive paganism where we are ruled by emotions, the same spirit of engagement in pagan sexuality and Jew hatred.

Do you want to live in a free, just, compassionate and flourishing nation? If the answer is yes, then thank God for His choosing of the Jews and celebrate the gifts they have given the world. If you want to live in an enslaved, corrupt, cruel, and impoverished nation, then despise the Jews and return to the worship of pagan gods as manifest by thriving pagan sexual practices.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

Action – Here are some starter ideas for you and your friends to brainstorm how you might support the Jews and stand in solidarity with them in the face of growing antisemitism. 

• Pray and thank God for the Jews and their gift to the world.  
• Pray for the Jews. Pray that their eyes would be opened to see that the long-awaited Messiah has come in the person of Jesus.  
• Pray against the antisemitic movements around the world. 
• Build relationships with Jewish neighbors and support Jewish businesses. 
• Encourage your pastor to speak to the church and explain that Christianity is rooted in Judaism and that Jesus Christ was a Jew. 
• Have a Menorah in the window of your home during the Christmas holidays. 
• Wear a Star of David. 

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