Antisemitism is growing in the Church. Something has gone wrong

Antisemitism is rising globally. Violent attacks make headlines for a day and then fade. What receives far less attention is how casually anti-Jewish sentiment has begun slipping into Evangelical conversations.

Recent surveys show the scale of the problem. Ninety-one percent of American Jews say they feel less safe in the United States because of violent antisemitic attacks in the past year. Eighty-six percent say antisemitism has increased since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. Nearly one-third say they have personally been targeted by antisemitism — online or in person — within the last year.

But statistics alone cannot explain what is happening inside the American church.

That concern is one of the reasons I joined writer Andrew Klavan and director Cyrus Nowrasteh in bringing “The Covenant,” a series centered on the Hebrew Scriptures, to life. Our hope is simple: to help modern audiences rediscover the Old Testament story that shaped the faith of Jesus and the early church.

Because something has gone wrong. That casual contempt reveals something deeper. We have become increasingly detached from the Old Testament.

Many churches move quickly to the Gospels and Epistles while neglecting the Torah and the Prophets. The result is a generation of believers who love Jesus but have almost no understanding of the covenant story He stepped into and fulfilled.

When contempt for the Jewish people shows up among Christians, it exposes a theological problem before it exposes a political one.

The harshest words I heard in Israel didn’t come from terrorists. They came from Christians.

My wife and I traveled to Israel for the first time this past December. We walked through Jerusalem, stood at the empty tomb, visited the Nova massacre site, and met families who lost children on October 7. I wept with the families of fallen soldiers. We sat with former hostages and with parents whose sons and daughters never came home.

Then I posted a simple photo of myself standing beside the Israeli flag.

Within minutes, my comments and inbox were filled with something I did not expect: anger.

Not political debate.

Not disagreement.

Something darker.

The attacks didn’t come from secular critics. They came from self-described Bible-believing Christians.

One ministry leader messaged me publicly: “You’re an idiot.” A woman commented, “If the Jews haven’t found Christ in 2,000 years, then we are the new chosen people.”

I was stunned.

I was raised in a family that believed Christians should honor the people through whom the Scriptures came. But what I witnessed online suggested something has shifted.

Jesus did not distance Himself from Israel’s Scriptures. He embodied them.

When Satan tempted Him in the wilderness, Satan quoted Psalm 91. Three times in Matthew 4, Jesus responded to temptation by quoting the Torah. On the cross, He cried out the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus’ vocabulary was saturated with the Hebrew Scriptures.

The apostle Paul warned Gentile believers in Romans 11 not to become arrogant toward the Jewish people. He used the image of an olive tree. Gentile believers, he said, are grafted in. We do not replace the root; we share in its nourishment.

But instead of gratitude and reverence, some believers show arrogance. When the Old Testament is neglected, that humility disappears.

Without the covenant with Abraham, Israel becomes irrelevant.

Without the prophets, exile is misread as rejection.

Without Romans 9–11, Gentile believers forget that they were grafted into a story that began long before them.

The result is subtle but dangerous.

Loving the Jewish people does not require blind allegiance to any government. Political policies can be debated. Military decisions can be scrutinized. But contempt for the Jewish people is incompatible with Christian faith.

If your theology produces disdain for the people through whom God gave the Law, the Prophets, and ultimately the Messiah, something is broken.

These are not abstractions. They are the living descendants of the people who preserved the Scriptures Christians claim to cherish.

The antidote to antisemitism is not political tribalism. It is biblical literacy. It is remembering that Christianity did not begin in Rome or Washington. It began in Jerusalem.

When Christians immerse themselves in the Torah and the Prophets, they recover the covenant framework that shaped Jesus, the apostles, and the early church.

If we forget the roots, we should not be surprised when the fruit turns bitter. The Church does not replace Israel.

It is grafted in by grace.

And grace leaves no room for contempt.

Antisemitism is rising globally. Violent attacks make headlines for a day and then fade. What receives far less attention is how casually anti-Jewish sentiment has begun slipping into Evangelical conversations.

Recent surveys show the scale of the problem. Ninety-one percent of American Jews say they feel less safe in the United States because of violent antisemitic attacks in the past year. Eighty-six percent say antisemitism has increased since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. Nearly one-third say they have personally been targeted by antisemitism — online or in person — within the last year.

But statistics alone cannot explain what is happening inside the American church.

That concern is one of the reasons I joined writer Andrew Klavan and director Cyrus Nowrasteh in bringing “The Covenant,” a series centered on the Hebrew Scriptures, to life. Our hope is simple: to help modern audiences rediscover the Old Testament story that shaped the faith of Jesus and the early church.

Because something has gone wrong. That casual contempt reveals something deeper. We have become increasingly detached from the Old Testament.

Many churches move quickly to the Gospels and Epistles while neglecting the Torah and the Prophets. The result is a generation of believers who love Jesus but have almost no understanding of the covenant story He stepped into and fulfilled.

When contempt for the Jewish people shows up among Christians, it exposes a theological problem before it exposes a political one.

The harshest words I heard in Israel didn’t come from terrorists. They came from Christians.

My wife and I traveled to Israel for the first time this past December. We walked through Jerusalem, stood at the empty tomb, visited the Nova massacre site, and met families who lost children on October 7. I wept with the families of fallen soldiers. We sat with former hostages and with parents whose sons and daughters never came home.

Then I posted a simple photo of myself standing beside the Israeli flag.

Within minutes, my comments and inbox were filled with something I did not expect: anger.

Not political debate.

Not disagreement.

Something darker.

The attacks didn’t come from secular critics. They came from self-described Bible-believing Christians.

One ministry leader messaged me publicly: “You’re an idiot.” A woman commented, “If the Jews haven’t found Christ in 2,000 years, then we are the new chosen people.”

I was stunned.

I was raised in a family that believed Christians should honor the people through whom the Scriptures came. But what I witnessed online suggested something has shifted.

Jesus did not distance Himself from Israel’s Scriptures. He embodied them.

When Satan tempted Him in the wilderness, Satan quoted Psalm 91. Three times in Matthew 4, Jesus responded to temptation by quoting the Torah. On the cross, He cried out the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus’ vocabulary was saturated with the Hebrew Scriptures.

The apostle Paul warned Gentile believers in Romans 11 not to become arrogant toward the Jewish people. He used the image of an olive tree. Gentile believers, he said, are grafted in. We do not replace the root; we share in its nourishment.

But instead of gratitude and reverence, some believers show arrogance. When the Old Testament is neglected, that humility disappears.

Without the covenant with Abraham, Israel becomes irrelevant.

Without the prophets, exile is misread as rejection.

Without Romans 9–11, Gentile believers forget that they were grafted into a story that began long before them.

The result is subtle but dangerous.

Loving the Jewish people does not require blind allegiance to any government. Political policies can be debated. Military decisions can be scrutinized. But contempt for the Jewish people is incompatible with Christian faith.

If your theology produces disdain for the people through whom God gave the Law, the Prophets, and ultimately the Messiah, something is broken.

These are not abstractions. They are the living descendants of the people who preserved the Scriptures Christians claim to cherish.

The antidote to antisemitism is not political tribalism. It is biblical literacy. It is remembering that Christianity did not begin in Rome or Washington. It began in Jerusalem.

When Christians immerse themselves in the Torah and the Prophets, they recover the covenant framework that shaped Jesus, the apostles, and the early church.

If we forget the roots, we should not be surprised when the fruit turns bitter. The Church does not replace Israel.

It is grafted in by grace.

And grace leaves no room for contempt.