The Intoxicating Effect of Wheat’s Evil Twin

Parable of the Wheat and Tares – Part 3

The following article “The Intoxicating Effect of Wheat’s Evil Twin” is the third part in the Parable of the Wheat and Tares series by Pastor Harry Meyer. Be sure to read Part 1, and Part 2 of this excellent teaching. His scripture reference is from Matthew 13:24-30 (vv. 36-43).

The Intoxicating Effect – Toxic Copycat Weed

In Part II we saw that tares are “toxic copycat weed” that looks and acts like wheat with the exception of the type of fruit it bears.[1]  En route to Jerusalem Paul warned the Ephesian elders to guard against such impostors.  He told them:

“…Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears”.

(Acts 20:28-31)

From the birth of the church in Jerusalem to the present-day many false teachers have gone forth placing stumbling blocks before people to draw them away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ into sinful behavior.  Such are tares―individuals who have chosen the rebellious road of Cain, given themselves over to the error of Balaam and are perishing in their rebellion like that of Korah.[2]

Early Church Fathers

Among such individuals were some early church fathers who wrongfully taught their congregants that the Jews were no longer GOD’s chosen people and the Church had replaced national Israel in GOD’s plan for the future after Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.  They were advocates of replacement theology. This is a false teaching which still leads biblically-illiterate congregants astray today.  The most outspoken advocate of this false teaching among the early church fathers was the archbishop of Constantinople, Saint John Chrysostom.

The Intoxicating Effect of Saint John Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407)

Saint John Chrysostom is considered by many historians as one of the greatest and most influential among the early Church Fathers.  Moreover, Chrysostom was known as the Bishop with the Golden Mouth for his exceptional preaching and public speaking skills.  Cardinal John Henry Newman referred to Chrysostom as “a bright cheerful gentle soul, a sensitive heart, a temperament open to emotion and impulse; and all this elevated, refined, transformed by the touch of heaven.”[3]    

However, this “bright cheerful gentle soul refined and transformed by the touch from heaven” authored eight homilies called “Adversus Judaeos” in Latin and “Against the Jews” in English.  Recorded in his homilies are some of the most toxic statements of condemnation by Chrysostom concerning Jews.[4]  He was the first prominent church leader to label the Jews as “Christ-killers.”

Chrysostom’s high-ranking position within the church gave his homilies the authority to birth antisemitism within the church.  Over time the bishop’s toxic statements prompted the introduction of antisemitic church and social regulations which furthered the divide between Christians and Jews.  Much like Jeroboam’s sin, who erected a dividing wall between brethren and fostered rebellion against GOD’s authority through religious perversion.[5] 

Middle Ages

The Intoxicating Effect of Martin Luther (A.D. 1483-1546)

Leaping forward to the year 1517 we find the appearance of another promising church leader, Martin Luther.  Martin Luther was a German priest and perhaps the most controversial church reformer of all time.

Luther began his ministry fighting the “good fight of faith”[6] against the false teachings of the mainstream church.  His Ninety-Five Thesis sparked the Protestant Reformation, and his commentaries on the Book of Romans and Galatians led John and Charles Wesley to repentance. It was Luther who penned the amazing hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”

He publicly condemned the church and its antisemitic teachings for inciting the illicit persecution of Jews, to which end Luther wrote a pamphlet titled “That Jesus Was Born a Jew.”  He charged the so-called “Passion Preachers” of his day as being ravenous wolves using their Easter Week sermons to sow the seed of antisemitism in the hearts of their mostly illiterate congregants by following the error of Chrysostom, repeatedly labeling the Jews as “Christ-killers.”  However, in his latter days, he abandoned the faith. Moreover, Luther the church reformer and Father of the Protestant Faith became Germany’s worst evil genius and antisemite.[7]

Bitterness and Hatred

When the Jews rejected Luther’s sincere overtures to convert en masse to his brand of Christianity, his disappointment gave way to bitterness and eventually hatred.  Luther expressed his newly acquired antisemitic views in a pamphlet titled “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies.”  In it, Luther stated some of the most vicious antisemitic statements ever penned by a church leader.[8]  Luther’s Jew-hating statements became well-known throughout Germany and were incorporated into German political and economic policies.  Once Hitler came to power, he found in Luther’s toxic statements a suitable ally for the basis of his “Final Solution”, making Germany Judenrein (Jew-free).  Therefore, when Hitler and his Nazi killing machine placed the Jews in ghettos, burned Jewish synagogues, homes, schools, and vandalized Jewish businesses; robbed Jews of their possessions, and forced them into concentration camps resulting in the murder of two-thirds of Europe’s Jews, they were carrying out Luther’s instructions as laid out in his pamphlet, “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies.”

Present Day

Advancing to the present day we find no shortage of those in the Church observing Chrysostom’s and Luther’s false teachings regarding the Jews.  Chrysostom’s version of Christianity condemned the Jews because of their religion. 

Luther’s version of Christianity condemned the Jews for their race, being Jews.  In the 21st century, a new twist to this centuries-old hate has popped up.  Jews are no longer hated because of their religion or race, but because of their state. 

The late British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks had this to say about the new twist, “Today they [the Jews] are hated because of their state.  The reason changes, but the hate stays the same.  Anti-Zionism has become the new anti-Semitism”.[9]

In the Error of Chrysostom and Luther

In June 2022 one of America’s largest mainstream Christian denomination General Assembly voted 266 to 116 to declare Israel an “apartheid state” in a move described by Christian and Jewish leaders as antisemitic and by Israel’s enemies as an “excellent stand.”[10] 

The denomination’s International Engagement Committee passed several resolutions that can be interpreted as being anti-Zionist in nature. 

• Resolution INT-02 accuses Israel of apartheid practices toward Palestinians under the term’s international legal definition.[11]  INT-02 charges Israel with “establishing two sets of laws”―one preferential to Israelis (particularly Jews) and another oppressive to Palestinians.  It further accuses Israel of stealing Palestinian land for use by Jewish-only settlements and segregating Palestinians into “separate reserves and ghettos,” and denying Palestinians the right to a nationality.[12]
• Resolution INT-10 calls upon the U.S. government to pressure the Israeli government to end its so-called military siege of Gaza.
  • INT-10 completely ignores the reality of what has occurred in Israel since 2005 when the Israeli government implemented Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement Plan.  Under the plan, 9,000 Jewish settlers living in twenty-five settlements within Gaza were forced to abandon their homes and businesses.  It was the Israeli government’s attempt to trade land in exchange for a Palestinian promise of peace. Simply put, Israel extended the olive branch of peace by reducing its land area by some 365 sq km or 140 sq miles.  Instead of the promised peace, Israel has put up with: 
    • The immediate takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the largest of several Palestinian militant Islamist groups.
    • Seventeen years of continuous mortar and rocket attacks aimed at Israeli civilian population centers. Between 2019-2022 a total of 6,891 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza indiscriminately targeting some of Israel’s largest population centers.[13]
    • Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists continually divert humanitarian aid meant for the Gazan people to carry on their unrelentless war against Israel.

The proof is in the pudding―the only peace militant Islamist groups seek with Israel is “one piece of land at a time.”[14]

• Resolution INT-13 adds insult to injury as members of the committee voted to designate May 15 as Palestinian Nakba Remembrance Day.  According to the committee’s general consensus, Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”) refers to the expulsion by terrorism and force of 750,000 Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim between 1947-1948.  INT-13 ignores some additional truths about this period:
  • The day following the U.N.’s approval of Resolution 181 (29 November 1947) indorsing the recreation of an independent Jewish state in the Promised Land local Arabs began rioting and killing their Jewish neighbors.  
  • Enraged by the existence of the newly-born Jewish state the surrounding Arab nations began to terrorize, persecute, and expel their Jewish citizens.  As a result, 850,000 Jews were forced to flee those Arab nations and some African states where they had lived for nearly 2,600 years since the Diaspora in 70 A.D.
  • On the day following Israel’s official declaration of independence (14 May 1948) the combined Arab armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt attacked the infant Jewish state in an effort to annihilate it.
• In other actions the committee rejected the Trump administration’s move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and “the doctrines of Christian Zionism that tend toward idolatry and heresy.”[15]

The denomination’s position on Israel is hypocritical at best if not downright anti-Zionist.  It claims the Jewish state has a right to exist independently but only within the limits of its pre-1967 borders.[16]  Reasons change but the enmity towards Jews has remained the same through the centuries.  In the 21^st century anti-Zionism is the new form of antisemitism, and the Church is not immune to its effects![17]

What Has Been Still Is

Solomon, the son of David stated:

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done will be done again.  There is nothing new under the sun”. 

(Ecclesiastes 1:9; TLV)

Over the last 17 centuries there has been no shortage of individuals willing to spread a different gospel within the church having an anti-semitic and/or anti-Zionist message, which is NO Gospel at all.  In fact, its message is contrary to the Gospel of Christ.  Jesus Christ through His atoning sacrifice is the shalom and bond of unity between Jews and Gentiles reconciling both to GOD in one body through the cross; thereby, abolishing the hostility between the two (Ephesians 2:11-22).

Woe to such persons, who’s antisemitic and/or anti-Zionist message is a stumbling block for biblically-illiterate congregants (past, present, and future) teaching them to curse and/or condemn what GOD has blessed, Israel.[18] 

Regarding Israel, they willfully ignore the fact that “the gifts and calling of GOD are irrevocable.”[19]  These are tares, “toxic copycat weeds”, masquerading as wheat.  Of such are the likes of Chrysostom, Luther, and those who currently embrace a progressive position on Bible doctrines. Likewise, including the future prophetic role of the Jewish state in GOD’s plan.[20]  

Anti-Semitism and/or anti-Zionism is sin and as such it damns the soul.  The only true antidote against the toxic effects of tares and their false gospels is the grace and truth that comes through Jesus Christ.[21] 

Jesus’ said it like this:

“If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples.  You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!” [22]

(John 8:31-32; TLV)

Footnotes

• [1] Matthew 7:15-20
• [2] Jude vv. 11-15; Genesis Chapter 4; Numbers 16:1-40 and Chapters 22-25
• [3] Quoted in Malcolm Hay, The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism (New York: Liberty Press, 1981), p. 27
• [4] “The Jews are the most worthless of all men…They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worshiped the devil; their religion is a sickness.  The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ, and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon.  Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jews must live in servitude forever.  God always hated the Jews.  It is incumbent upon all Christians [their duty] to hate the Jews” ―John Hagee, Jerusalem Countdown, (Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2006), p. 73.
• [5] 1 Kings 12:25-33
• [6] 1 Timothy 6:12
• [7] Malcom Hay, The Roots of Christian Anti-Semitism, (New York: Freedom Liberty Press, 1981), p. 166
• [8] Michael L. Brown, Our Hands Are Stained With Blood―The Tragic Story of the Church and the Jewish People, (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc.) p. 14-15 and John Hagee, Jerusalem Countdown, (Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2006), p. 77-78.
• [9] Late British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks quote: “Of course, not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic.  But make no mistake what has happened.  In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion.  In the 19^th century and 20^th they were hated because of their race.  Today when it’s no longer done to hate people for their religion or their race, today they are hated because of their state.  The reason changes, but the hate stays the same.  Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.” (www.israelnationalnews.com/news/210293; www.newsweek.com/jonathan-sacks-anti-semitism-anti-zionism-bds-israel-labour-442978), April 3/4, 2016
• [10] Chris Pandolfo, Major US Denomination declares Israel an Apartheid State, (www.theblaze.com/news/major-u-s-christian-denomination-declares-israel-an-apartheid-state), July 11, 2022
• [11] Under the International Legal definition, apartheid refers to the implementation and maintenance of a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights.  It is a crime against humanity punishable under the Roman Statute of the International Criminal Court.
• [12] Scott O’Neill, Israel and Palestine dominate the attention of the International Engagement Committee, (www.pcusa.org/news/2022/6/28/israel-and-palestine-dominate-attention-internatio/), June 28, 2022
• [13] www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/palestinian-rocket-and-mortar-attacks-against-israel
• [14] John Hagee, Earth’s Last Empire, The Final Game of Thrones, (New York, NY: Worthy Publishing, Revised Edition 2020), p. 34-35.
• [15] Michael Starr, US Presbyterian Church: Israel is apartheid state, creates Nakba Remembrance Day, (www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-710725), July 3, 2022
• [16]  INT-02, On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People, (www.pc-biz.org/#/search/3000773)
• [17] See Note 9
• [18] Numbers 23:8; 23:23
• [19] Romans 11:25-36
• [20] See Romans Chapters 10-11
• [21] John 1:17
• [22] See John 15:1-8―Jesus Christ is the true Vine

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