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A broadcast you will never forget today. This is Michael Brown, your voice for moral sanity, spiritual clarity, every day. It's our goal, it's our mission, it's our commission to help infuse you with faith and truth and courage. We are all in the Line of Fire today.
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It's absolutely free. Yesterday I began to talk to you about some of the horrible history of the church and the Jewish people. Stories that Jewish people know well, especially religious Jews and many Christians never knew existed. John Christastom, one of the great leaders in the first five centuries of the church, said this, when animals have been fattened by having all they want to eat, they get stubborn and hard to manage. When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter. And this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter.
This is why Christ said, as for my enemies who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me. Friends, I've seen anti-Semites today quote these words saying we need to destroy the Jews. I've seen it. I've heard it.
Shocking. Listen to what, a little bit more of Christastom. He said, since there are some who think of the synagogue as a holy place, I must say a few words to them. Why do you reverence that place? Must you not despise it? Hold it in an abomination?
Run from it? And on and on it goes. This goes on through church history, the vilification of the Jews, the demonizing of the Jews. Rabbi Byron Sherwin said this, the Jew was viewed by the Christians as demonic, anti-Christ, criminal, blasphemous, heretical, and either blind or stubbornly recalcitrant to Christian truth.
The Jew was neither considered to believe in or worship the true God. Rather, the Jew was considered to be an agent, an ally, and a worshiper of Satan. You say, yeah, but Jesus said to the Jews, your father is the devil. Okay, well, we'll look at that.
Maybe next week we'll get to start. We'll look at some of those verses. John 8 44 and see, is that what's saying? Is Jesus saying all Jews are children of the devil? Is that what he was saying?
Well, look at this. So Martin Luther sees all this evil stuff, sees what the church has done to the Jewish people over the years, and he writes this. This is 1523. He says, perhaps I will attract some of the Jews to the Christian faith, for our fools, the popes, bishops, sophists, and monks, the coarse blockheads, have until this time so treated the Jews that if I had been a Jew and had sieged on idiots and blockheads ruling and teaching the Christian religion, I would rather have been a sow than a Christian, for they have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs and not human beings. This is what he wrote in 1523. So he thought through his outreach efforts that he would see a large turning of Jewish people, but it didn't happen. In fact, he saw very little fruit of Jewish people coming to faith. He also saw Christians in his churches that were becoming interested in Judaism or Jewish tradition, just as happened with Christians in Christ's Psalms Day. He saw this. He was under the misapprehension that Jews in the synagogue every day cursed Christians three times, and he was showing literature from religious Jewish writings that blasphemes Jesus.
Now this does exist. There are horrible things that some Jewish literature says about Jesus Yeshua, and some of it is in direct reaction to church persecution. So this created a greater hatred for the the God of the church, this Jesus character, and some of it was just based on Jewish rejection of Jesus. But there are blasphemous things in some traditional Jewish literature.
And let me make this clear. You could study Jewish literature day and night for a hundred years, and maybe once every 50 years find a passage that says something negative about Yeshua. In other words, there's a massive, massive amount of Jewish literature, traditional literature, and hardly any of it talks about Jesus Yeshua.
But there are some ugly, terrible statements. Luther saw those. So it's a combination of all these things. Luther's also old and sick and very paranoid. He thinks Jews are trying to poison him and stuff.
Whatever the backdrop is, he now changes tone. In 1523, he writes a mini book called Concerning the Jews and Their Lies. It's available anywhere on the internet now.
But in in the old days, when I was looking for it, the only place that I found it was in neo-Nazi catalogs. Now I'm going to read some of this in a moment, but here's the history. What he writes is deplorable and despicable and inexcusable, period, end of subject.
There's no qualification. There's no justification. Despicable, deplorable, unacceptable, inexcusable. However, it was not widely embraced by his colleagues. I've been, I've understood that the Latin translator, the German tried to soften it, and that subsequent generations of Lutherans either ignored it or didn't. Ignored it and favored his 1523 document that Jesus Christ was born a Jew, his favorable document, or actually made statements against it. So this did not influence the thinking of Lutherans over the centuries in a heavy and substantial way.
It was either disregarded, forgotten, or repudiated by many. However, the Nazis rediscovered it just as they redeployed the Sermons of Christastom and broadcast these and printed them all over Germany because Luther is highly revealed, revered in Germany, and the Church of Germany honors Luther deeply. So here's what Luther had to say. What shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?
I'm just going to give you the highlights. First, their synagogues should be set on fire. Martin Luther. Their synagogues should be set on fire. Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed.
Don't, don't turn this broadcast off. I'm telling you the truth. No one, no one denies this. No historian denies this.
No one. Everyone knows Luther wrote this. Their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds, the religious Jewish literature. Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach anymore.
Martin Luther. Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews. Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usuries, charging interest on loans. Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle, and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses.
We ought to drive the rascally lazy bones out of our system. Therefore, away with them. To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable, devilish burden, the Jews. Do you call it heartbreaking? Do you feel anger when you hear those words?
Are you shocked? Jewish people know that history. Many Christians don't. So you see the sin of the Catholic Church, you see the sin of the Protestant Church in common against the Jewish people.
Now, hear this. Many historians say that the real beginning of the Holocaust was what's called Kristallnacht. You had the Nuremberg laws, discriminatory laws against the Jews. You had steps being taken to hurt the Jewish people and decimate the Jewish people.
But really, things get put into practice on Kristallnacht, November 9th, 1938. On this night, the Nazis set synagogues on fire. They destroyed Jewish homes and places of business. There was tremendous vandalism.
The insurance company said, we're not going to pay for repairs. Tremendous vandalism. Many injured, some even killed.
It was a test. What will the German population do? Will the people stand up together and push back? Will they come into the streets and say, this is an outrage, what are you doing? And basically, they did nothing.
They did nothing as it happened. And people wake up the morning of November 10th and the synagogues are burning. Well, it so happens November 10th is the birthday of Martin Luther. November 10th, the birthday of Martin Luther. And one of the leading German bishops of the day said, what a great sight to see the synagogues burning on the birthday of Martin Luther, because he was such an anti-Semite. During the Nuremberg War trials, one of the major Nazis, as he's being accused, said Martin Luther should be sitting here where I'm sitting, because he addressed all this in his book, The Jews and Their Lies, concerning the Jews and Their Lies. What the Nazis did on Kristallnacht at the beginning of the Holocaust was exactly out of Luther's book, literally, to the T, exactly what Luther said, set the synagogues on fire, break down, destroy Jewish homes. And then not long after that, all the other things put in place.
And then, of course, the final solution, extermination. This church history, friends, this is reality. This is one reason that so many Jews do not believe in Jesus, because of the sin of the Jews.
So many Jews do not believe in Jesus because of the sins of the church. All right, an important announcement, and we'll be right back. I'm Paul Burnett, a board-certified doctor of holistic health. I have never met anyone deficient in caffeine or sugar, but I have met many people deficient in energy-supporting vitamin B12. Unlike other oral B12 supplements, Alfred Libby's slow-dissolve Super B12 is fast acting because the formula is scientifically developed to dissolve under the tongue, bypassing the digestive process, making it immediately available for use in the body. Alfred Libby's slow-dissolve Super B12 is also formulated with other natural energy-supporting ingredients, such as folate, ginseng root, and other natural ingredients. You deserve to live with greater energy and mental clarity, and now, like millions of others, you can with Alfred Libby's slow-dissolve Super B12, sold only by your wellness partner, TriVita. To order Alfred Libby's B12 for yourself, call 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast.
Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584, or online at trivita.com. Friends, one reader of Our Hands Are Staying with Blood said, I wanted to put the book down, but I couldn't. They said, some books you can't put down. He says, I wanted to, but I couldn't, because it's the truth. Leonard Ravenhill, I remember, said it's, you know, we say, it's too good to be true.
He said, this is too true to be good. Yeah, this is spiritual reality. But friends, the good news is, the good news is, God is at work and opening the hearts and minds of Jewish people. And please hear me, if you're a Christian that loves the Jewish people, it is your love for Israel, is your love for the Jewish people.
It doesn't mean that everything Israel does is right, doesn't mean Jewish people are perfect, but it is your love that's helping remove the stains of blood. Quick, quick reminder, because I so want to equip you and help you day by day and just every day through the week, give you food and nourishment. So the broadcast here, then our frontline newsletter every month, but then new articles every week, because it's a rough world.
We're in a rough time and there's so much deception and so much error and so much lack of clarity. Boy, I want to stand by and help you. So make sure you're getting our frontline newsletter and our weekly emails. Go to the line of fire dot org, the line of fire dot org.
Sign up today. The good news is, this is something that God really laid on my heart, oh, about 20 years ago, a little over 20 years ago, that it's only tears of love that will wipe away the stain of blood. Only tears of love that will wipe away the stain of blood. I was on a big Christian network a few days ago, Daystar, and I was told that since the war in Israel began, October 7th with the massacre, that they've given over 20 million dollars of support to Israel. This is donors sending in money and they send 100 percent over. So rebuilding kibbutzim, starting that project that were decimated, or people that have been displaced have nowhere to go, and Israel's so strained with its resources it can't help them.
So getting places where they can stay, better bulletproof vests for soldiers, either because they don't have enough or the ones they have are not that effective or they're hard to wear, just seeking help. And Jewish people see this like, why are you doing this? Well, we're Christians, we love Israel. It's like, well, through history Christians hated the Jews.
No, no, no. Many professing Christians did, but we want to show you what real Christians are like. We want to show you who the real Jesus is.
Oh, it's so powerful. But see, when you know the history, when they tell you about the Crusades, say, I know all about it, and you give more details. And when you have our hands are stained with blood, you'll know that, you'll be able to give the details. Well, Luther, yeah, I know that. But let me tell you what Lutherans did through the centuries and repudiated that wrong teaching. Here, let me just go just a little bit a little bit further.
Are you ready? There is a Lutheran church in the city of Wittenberg. And it has a carving in front of it. And it goes back to Luther's day. And this is how he describes it.
Paint the picture. It's a pig. And the rabbis, Jewish people are where the pig is defecating and urinating. And it's still there.
It's still there in front of the church building to this day. This shows you the spirit of the age. Luther said, well, now, I don't know in detail where they got it from, but I can guess approximately here at Wittenberg, in our parish church, in our parish church, there is a sal, so pig, carved into the stone under which the young pigs and Jews are sucking. Behind the sal is a rabbi who is lifting up the right leg of the sal, raises the behind of the sal, bows down and looks with great effort into the Talmud under the sal as if he wanted to read and see something most difficult and exceptional. For among the Germans, it is said of someone who pretends to great wisdom without good cause, where did he read that, oh, the behind of the sal.
And he expresses it in very crude German. I mean, this is this is foul. This is gross. This is grotesque. And this is this is in front of a church building.
It's still there. Lutheran scholar or scholar of Martin Luther, Eric W. Grich, said there's even a hint of racism in Luther when he commented on the unsubstantiated rumor unsubstantiated rumor that Jews killed Christian children. This crime, Luther said, still shines forth from their eyes and their skin. We are at fault in not slaying them and not slaying the Jews.
Such a declaration, Grich says, cannot be limited to a specific historical context. It is timeless and means death to the Jews, whether it is uttered by Luther or Adolf Hitler. Moreover, Luther himself was willing to kill, quote, a blaspheming Jew, quote, Luther.
I would slap his face and if I could fling them to the ground and in my anger pierce him with my sword. Let me fast forward now to 1933. One of the first major reference books that I got in my days of biblical scholarship when I was able to afford it was the 10 volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, first five volumes by Gerhard Kittel, second five volumes by Gerhard Friedrich, and then translated into English by Jeffrey Bromley. It's a massive work of scholarship, still used to this day, but for decades you go to any seminary library in America or any major seminary in the world and they had the 10 volumes of Kittel, either in German or English.
They had those volumes, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, a massive, massive work of massive erudition, massive learning, massive importance. The first five volumes I said were edited by Gerhard Kittel. Kittel was a Nazi.
Yeah, it's a little hard for me to say these words. Kittel was a Nazi, the editor of one of the most highly esteemed works of New Testament scholarship in the 20th century, one of the most important works of Greek lexicography Greek dictionary, expansive dictionary writing, was a Nazi. And Kittel wrestled with the Jewish problem, the Jewish question. So he said that that extermination would be impractical.
Not really practical. Later he said it would be un-Christian. What do we do with the Jews? Well Zionism, out of the question. Too many Jews to fit in Palestine, the Arabs wouldn't be happy with it. So extermination, it's not practical, plus it's not really Christian to exterminate all the Jews. Zionism sent him back to Israel.
No, no, no, no way. Assimilation? No, no, you can't let the Jews become part of the German people. So this is what Kittel said, editor of the great Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, first five volumes. Rather, the Jews should accept discrimination. This is a Christian leader, Lutheran leader. Rather, the Jews should accept discrimination and defamation as their lot.
Let them be treated as guests in a foreign land, second class beleaguered guests, of course. After all, they were Jews, weren't they? In fact, according to Kittel, the only authentic Jews were those who, quote, in obedience take on themselves the suffering of dispersal.
Authentic Judaism abides by the symbol of the stranger wandering restless and homeless on the face of the earth. And Holocaust historian Robert Erickson said this, that Kittel resurrected Christian antisemitism from the Middle Ages, refurbished it with a touch of contemporary racial mysticism, and raised it as a German Christian bulwark against the Jewish menace. He proposed harsh measures to deal with this menace, and he directed his research to reveal Jewish degeneracy. In short, he swam in the Nazi stream, though he may have preferred a different stroke. This is how the Nazis answered Luther's question, how do we deal with this damned insufferable race of the Jews.
And Erasmus, you may be familiar with Erasmus. Erasmus, if you've done New Testament textual history, Erasmus, a contemporary of Luther and a theological opponent of Luther, Erasmus said if it's Christian to hate the Jews, then we are all Christian. They unite it in their hatred of the Jewish people.
So how do you deal with this? When you talk to a Jewish person, they raise church history, you say it's absolutely true every word of it. In fact, you quote things to them because you know them, because you learn them how, because you've read Our Hands are Staying with Blood, you've listened to this broadcast and you say it's all true. But can I tell you as a follower of Jesus, it's the exact opposite of what he taught. Can I tell you that Paul warned about these very things about Gentile Christians becoming arrogant and thinking that they had replaced the Jews and that God had cursed the Jews forever? Can I tell you that the Christians that I know that love the Jewish people and they love Israel? And I just love to show you what a real Christian is like and I'm so sorry. On behalf of true Christians, I apologize for what these others have done.
Some of them were just false Christians, some of them true Christians who were terribly misguided. But I apologize as a representative of Jesus and I'd love to tell you more about who he really is because he's Jewish. His name is Yeshua. His brother's name is Miriam. He's called Mashiach, Messiah.
That's Christ in Greek. I'd love to tell you why I love the Jewish people. They make a big difference. Tears of love will wipe away the stains of blood. So get the book, read it. Everything I said and so much more of these last broadcasts.
It's all in the book, every single quote and many, many more. Our hands are stained with blood and it ends with great hope and great encouragement. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click donate.
