THE MISTAKES OF MANY CHRISTIANS CONCERNING JEWS STATED AND CORRECTED (John Wilkinson, from)

“Prejudice is blinding. We readily assent to this in the case of the Jew. The Jew has been, and to a large extent is still, prejudiced against Christ and Christianity, and that prejudice blinds. Many Christians are still prejudiced against the Jews and are to the same extent blinded. Hence, in the case of the Jew, the Scriptures which relate to the Messiahship of Jesus are misinterpreted under the blindness of prejudice; and in the case of the Christian, the Scriptures which relate to the Jew are misinterpreted under the same blind influence. It is a mistake to suppose that NATIONAL REJECTION, which is but TEMPORARY, and which affects necessarily only TEMPORAL INTERESTS, has imperiled individual salvation…[see Romans 11:1, 10:12-15, 1:16]. Then if national rejection of the Jew has not imperiled his individual salvation, it has always been, and is now, the imperative duty of the Christian…to preach to him the Gospel….Furthermore, it is a mistake to suppose that the guilt incurred in the crucifixion of Jesus hinders Jewish conversion. How frequently have hard thoughts been suggested, and hard words uttered by even Christian ministers and commentators when quoting the imprecation: ‘His blood be on us, and on our children [Matt.27:25].’ Now we readily admit that judgment came on the NATION as the result of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah; and it must be admitted further that individual Jews rejecting Jesus as Saviour necessarily died in their sins, for Jesus said, ‘If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.’…the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus not only affected the national and temporal interests of the Jews, turning the nation out of Palestine and scattering them among the Gentiles…but that the deliberate rejection of Jesus as Saviour affected the spiritual and eternal interests of multitudes of individual Jews then as the same conduct in Jews and Gentiles does now. But when we consider that tens of thousands of Jews of that same generation were truly converted after the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus, we are justified in maintaining that the spiritual and eternal interests of the people as a whole were not unfavourably affected by the people’s imprecation, ‘His blood be on us, and on our children.’….Admitting, however, that for purposes of retribution God does permit imprecations to fall on the heads of the wicked themselves, He does not permit the wicked to dispose of the spiritual and eternal interests of their children. If imprecations on others were to be answered, the Romanists would have made short work of the whole Protestant world before now; and even drunkards would barter the eternal interests of their children for the intoxicating cup….They crucified knowingly a MAN. They crucified knowingly an INNOCENT man…They crucified knowingly, not only a man, an innocent man, but also a Divine Messenger, as His works testified. But they did not crucify knowingly ‘the Lord of Glory’ [1 Cor. 2:8, Acts 3:17]…It must also be remembered that our Lord’s prayer on the Cross for His crucifiers was based on their ignorance of what they were doing [Luke 23:34]….The sin of crucifying Jesus was a sin, and a great sin, but it was not THE sin of the Jews. THE sin of the Jews then, as now, is THE SIN of the Gentile also – rejecting salvation through the blood after the blood was shed….Thus we regard it as a mistake to suppose that the imprecation uttered nearly 2000 years ago has unfavourably affected the spiritual interests of untold millions of Jews in subsequent generations.

It is a mistake to suppose that the Divine order ‘to the Jew first’ has ever been annulled or reversed. ‘To the Jew first’ as an INDIVIDUAL in this dispensation, and as a NATION in the millennial era, is God’s plan; and the neglect of this order has been followed by disastrous results….the Lord Himself will see that this arrangement is carried out on His return to bless the world….

Wrong thoughts about the Jews have produced unkind and unchristian feelings towards the Jews; and wrong thoughts and wrong feelings have produced wrong conduct. It is a mistake to use the expression ‘Gentile Church’…it suggests unscriptural and dangerous inferences. It leads Christians to infer that this is a purely Gentile dispensation, so that without any culpable neglect of duty they may leave the Jews alone until the times of the Gentiles close and the Gentile Church, so-called, is complete….[see Acts 10:45, 11:1, 18, Eph.3:6, Rom.11:17]….Gentiles were admitted into the Jewish Christian Church only to SHARE on common terms the blessing of a common salvation: and the ‘ALSO TO THE GENTILE’ is as truly the revealed mind of God as is ‘TO THE JEW FIRST.’”