Fighting God Series

The first act of aggression by which one man attacked another

with intent to kill was motivated by religious intolerance. Cain

could not stand to see Abel in better harmony with God than

himself, and the result was murder. This attitude of intolerance is

found all through the Old Testament. Israel could tolerate false

gods, but could not tolerate the prophets of the true God, and so

they killed them. We come to the New Testament and see that one of

the biggest factors in the crucifixion of Christ was the religious

intolerance of the Jewish leaders. This intolerance was focused on

the church also. In spite of Gamaliel’s warning that they might be

fighting against God, they went on persecuting Christians, and they

did all they could to stop Paul. As Paul write to the Thessalonians

he is glad that they have stood firm in the midst of persecution. Paul

then seems to release some of his feelings toward the Jews, an in so

doing he opens for us an interesting study in religious intolerance

and righteous indignation.

I. RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.

The Jews became exceedingly narrow minded, and they failed

to realize that God had chosen them to be servants in the world.

They had the idea that they were chosen to be privileged characters,

and that God only loved them and had no concern for the rest of the

world. The prophets, of course, made it clear that God had a

universal love, but the people paid no attention to the prophets.

Having this attitude caused them to fail in being God’s servant in

reaching the rest of mankind. When Christ came as a suffering

servant rather than a conquering king they killed him. Their

bigotry made the idea of being servants to the Gentiles very

distasteful. They were intolerant of any religious teaching that did

not conform with their own misconceptions.

Paul would be the last man to encourage anti-Semitism, but he

gives us here a list of facts that we cannot ignore. First of all the

Jews killed the Lord Jesus as he says in verse 15. The Catholic

Church has been debating whether or not to make this fact less

forceful. Some want to make it clear that all men killed the Lord

Jesus, and in fact this is true. Jesus died for all of our sins, and it

was the sins of all people’s that put Him on the cross. Historic

accuracy, however, demands that we recognize that the anger,

intolerance and prejudice that nailed Him there was of the Jews.

The Romans were only involved incidently because of the

circumstances of that day. There was no malicious forethought on

the part of any but the Jewish leaders.

To despise Jews, as many have done through the ages, and to

hate them for this is totally non-biblical. Jesus forgave them on the

cross, and Paul in Romans says that he could wish himself accursed

if it would mean the salvation of the Jews. We do not have to deny

or distort the facts to love the Jews, and to feel love toward them, as

all other men without Christ. To try and deny that the Jews killed

Jesus is not biblical, and it serves no useful purpose. Since it has no

bearing on how we treat them or anyone else today, it is just a fact,

and not the basis for any attitude or action.

H. G. Enelow in the book A Jewish View Of Jesus tries to

reverse the whole account as it is biblically stated. He writes, “The

Jewish trial described in the Gospel’s is so full of irregularities and

improbabilities that we may well assume that it represents a later

assumption rather than an actual fact.” He goes on, “On the other

hand, it seems most probable that Jesus was seized by the Roman

government and tried and executed by the orders of Pilate.” He gets

the Jews off all together, but honesty demands that we accept the

record as it is, and that we see the bigotry and religious intolerance

of the Jews that lead them to kill their prophets and their own

Messiah.

Paul says they also drove us out. The Jews hated Paul after his

conversion, and it was basically because they could not tolerate the

truth. If Paul had become a quiet Christian he probably would not

have had any trouble, but he became zealous for the truth. In Acts

9:22-24 we read, “But Paul increased the more in strength, and

confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is

very Christ. An after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took

council to kill him...and they watched the gates day and night to kill

him.” From that time on the Jews were out to get Paul.