Tag Archives: Chosen People

THE HOLOCAUST

Teaching, , ,

The word ‘holocaust’ in Hebrew originally meant “A great slaughter of burnt offerings.” [Strong’s #5930. Akin to #5766 with the implication of ‘unjust’ or ‘wicked.’]

Lessons From History

To understand what is now being called “The Holocaust,” we need to understand the history of Hitler’s awful wars, that triggered World War II, and the horrible destruction and slaughters he committed throughout Europe and even up into Russia. He not only killed Jews, but created the wars that also killed more than 50 million people worldwide, including my only brother and many multitudes of other innocent people. He justified his actions by claiming that the ‘Aryan’ race was superior to all others; in other words “the chosen people.”

There have been many “wicked, unjust great slaughters” since the days of Hitler’s Germany. For example, the slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Deir Yassin, Gaza, the Sabra and Shatila Refugee Camps, just to name a few. These too, were “holocausts,” unjust slaughter of innocent victims, again justifying their actions by claiming to be the “Chosen People,” and this slaughter is still continuing daily by denying the Palestinians the right to the basic necessities of life. Our wars are also the cause of the millions of other refugees who have been killed and bombed out of their homes.

We need also to remember that our own US of A has committed ‘holocausts,’ for example the slaughter and robbery of the Indian tribes as the pioneers went throughout the West, proclaiming “manifest destiny,” and using their superior weaponry, [the Remington rifle], to destroy multitudes of innocent Indian victims. [The doctrine of “manifest destiny” meant that they were doing “God’s will.”]

We Are Making History Now

Understanding history should teach us how to avoid making the same mistakes. “He who disregards the lessons of history is bound to repeat them.” And here we are engaged in wars of unjustified legitimacy. Here we are, still waging unjust wars and putting a price on justice that denies it to the poor.

Oh, yes – many tears are being shed for the awful ‘holocaust’ victims that Hitler caused. But our tears will not correct those horrible historical events. No amount of reparation money can atone for those past sins and those who were responsible for those sins are dead and gone to their judgment.

However, this is the here and now; this is where we live and where our responsibilities lie. We are here, now, being called to repent and to stand for justice in our own time and place. This is our day and our responsibility. For this we, too, will face the judgment of God.

Lesson 9 Of Series – Christ Revealed As Judge In The Destruction of Jerusalem

Revelation Commentary, , ,

Christ Revealed As Judge

Another way in which the destruction of Jerusalem served to reveal Christ was in His role as Judge upon the fleshly nation, Israel. John 5:22, 23: “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: (23) That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him.” ( See also John 12:31, 32.)

The fiery judgment upon Jerusalem, the War and subsequent dispersion of the remaining people terminated forever the age of the fleshly identity of the nation. Ladd speaks of John the Baptist’s witness that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire: “The fiery judgment would suggest an event terminating this age and initiating the Age to Come.”*

The Surviving Jews Rejected the Book Of Revelation

Even when Christ’s prophesies came to pass, many of the surviving Jews continued to put their trust in their fleshly genealogies or in the outward forms of Judaism. For them, Christ’s prophecies were a threat of extinction and so was intolerable. With all the ferocity of those fighting for their very lives, they resisted His teachings. The fact that the Book of Revelation showed this event as a glorious triumph of the saints and as the source of rejoicing in heaven maddened those who saw their legitimacy eliminated and caused fierce opposition against the Book in its early period of existence. Many early manuscripts of the Book , probably those written in the original Hebrew, were all burned in this early period, only the Greek translations survived as far as we now know. This ferocious opposition to the Book accounts for the fact that it was written in the apocalyptic genre using a kind of code fully understood only by those immersed in Christian doctrine.

Christian Faith Vindicated

For the Christian Jews, – and the great majority of Christians at that time were genetically Jews, – the Book was an account of the vindication of their faith in Christ, showing His triumph over all other claimants to the inheritance rights, destroying their grounds for persecution of the saints, completing the fulfillment of every prophecy, every promise, every hope of Light and Life. To them the Book of Revelation was worth every effort to preserve it. The Book itself became one of the focal points of division between the two rival religions, Judaism and Christianity.

Christianity claimed to be, in Christ, the only surviving remnant of the old nation of Israel, partly because of the account of the destruction of the fallen nation in this Book. The canonization of the Book by the Christian community represented the official declaration of their claim to be the surviving Chosen People. Canonization means that the Church accepted it as the Word of God, Holy Scripture.

*Ladd, George. A Theology of the New Testament. William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1974.