I will never understand how a person can call themselves a Christian and yet be anti-Semitic. Perversely, the historical Church has a long history of animosity toward Jews. This concept of hating the Jews while believing that you are a Christian is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and to those of both the New and Old Testaments.

If a person is anti-Semitic then they must by definition hate Jesus Christ, His disciples, and the rest of the early Christians. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus was born of a Jewish mother and had Jewish ancestors. Therefore, Jesus was a Jew. This fact is laid out clearly in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. The apostle Paul states in Philippians 3:5: "[I was] circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law a Pharisee." You can't get anymore Jewish than the apostle Paul yet if you are anti-Semitic then you have to hate him because he was a Jew. Mary the mother of Jesus was Jewish. King David was Jewish. Revelation 5:5 calls Jesus the "lion of the tribe of Judah." It is from the word "Judah" that we derive the word "Jew". So I don't see how anyone can claim to be a Christian yet hate Jews.

Jesus said that His followers weren't to have hatred for anyone. He said that Christians were to love their enemies. So if you consider the Jews your enemy then to be obedient to Jesus Christ you must love them. I do not consider the Jews my enemy. To the contrary, I am thankful to them for allowing themselves to be servants of God in faithfully writing down His Word and giving it to the rest of mankind. The apostle Paul says in Romans 3:2, "because unto [the Jews] were committed the oracles of God."

Jesus said in Matthew 10:24 that He was sent to save the "lost sheep of the house of Israel". He was plainly speaking about the Jews. In John 4:22 Jesus said that salvation is of the Jews. The apostle Paul stated in Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles." If it weren't for all of those early Jewish believers faithfully following Jesus Christ and then faithfully writing the New Testament, there wouldn't be any Christians or Christianity today.

Today there are hundreds of thousands of Jewish Christians in the world. They refer to themselves as Messianic Jews (I have referred to myself as a Messianic Gentile on occasion just to start a discussion). They have added tremendously to my understanding of Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew) and His teachings. If you study the seven Jewish Feasts you will see how they each are a type of Jesus' ministry on earth and His future plans for the end-time events. The traditional Jewish betrothal and wedding give a great insight into Jesus' second coming. I thank God for my fellow Jewish believers in Jesus and for what I have learned from them.

I hope that Christians will openly receive all believers in Jesus Christ with His love and will take advantage of the tremendous wealth of knowledge that He has given to us through His Jewish children. And to the non-believing Jews I hope that Christians will show them the love of Christ as we are called to do.