Dr. Michael Brown, a Bible scholar born into a Jewish family in New York, claims that he has met more professing Christians today who are anti-Semites than in the last 47 years.
The book "Christian Antisemitism: Confronting the Lies in Today's Church," written by Dr. Brown, was the subject of an interview for The Eric Metaxas podcast.
According to Brown, he initially did not plan to write the book, but was driven to do so as a result of the growing anti-Semitic attitudes he has seen among the Christian community. As an example, he pointed out that the majority of the nearly 2,000 videos on the "Ask Dr. Brown" YouTube channel had received extremely favorable feedback, with 95-98% of viewers giving their "thumbs up."
"But when I put up a video exposing contemporary antisemitism, suddenly it changes. It's like 60%, thumbs down 40% Thumbs up like we're all these people come from, and they're quoting scripture in the midst to do Jew hatred," he said.
Nasty comments under his videos aside, Brown brought attention to a man named John Earnest, a professing Christian who went into a synagogue in Poway, California, with the admission that he intends to send as many Jews to hell as possible because he believes that Jews are all responsible for the death of Christ.
Earnest's manifesto, according to Brown, not only contains the usual white supremacist beliefs such as "the Jews are trying to wipe out the European race," but it also contains many quotations from the Bible.
Brown went on to add that the flawed theology which blames the Jews for killing Jesus, and especially blames Israel has to be brought to light. He specifically referred to the wrong notions of "replacement theology," whereby certain religious organizations think that the Church has replaced the role of Israel.
"(They) close out the book by saying, 'Hey, if God's finished with the Jewish people, if they are forever cursed for rejecting Jesus and they're all culpable of the crucifixion of Christ, why is Jesus coming back to Jerusalem, of all places?' What does that imply and what does scripture say is going to happen in Jerusalem?"
Another example that Brown brought up in the latter part of the interview is the war between Hamas and Israel, which broke earlier this year. The anti-Semites, according to him, think that Israel is the source of all evil since they are the occupying forces of the land.
But to clarify, Brown said that he considers this "Christian anti-Semitism" to be driven by an evil spirit in the sense that he feels some individuals are held captive by this specific kind of hate for Jews.
Metaxas agreed that it's a spiritual issue because of some people within churches that can't be reasoned with.
"Anybody who has the most basic understanding of God and the Bible knows we all crucified Jesus," said Metaxas. "Our sins, crucified Jesus. So, the idea that somebody is thinking so sloppily, that they put Jews in a box, you know, it's sort of, it's fundamentally illogical."
On where America is headed as a nation, Brown said that it's "hanging on the edge."
"Our relationship towards God, our relationship towards morality, our relationship towards Jewish people, it's an urgent moment," he said. "It's revival or 'we die' moment, it's turn to God and get help, or America as we know it ceases to exist."
