Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a British and American author, journalist, educator and speaker of some fame. He became known as “one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse” along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennet who were the faces of the New Atheism that arose at the turn of the century. Hitchens was a prolific writer and a fanatical proponent of this New (aggressive) Atheism. He constantly dismissed religion, and in particular, the God of the bible, arguing that “what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence” – a core argument in his atheism. Hitchens saw all religions as harmful, repressive, completely false and authoritarian.
Hitchens wrote a memoir, Hitch-22, and in it he raised a question that had apparently puzzled him for most of his career, but which he could never answer. He asked, “why it is that anti-Semitism is so tenacious and so protean and so enduring?” Indeed, the Roman Catholic historian, Michael Flannery, in his work, “The Anguish of the Jews”, noted a similar thing…
“As the historian of antisemitism looks back over the millennia of horrors he has recorded, an inescapable conclusion emerges: Antisemitism is the longest and deepest hatred of human history. Other hatreds may have surpassed it in intensity for a historical moment, but all in their turn have assumed—or presently commence to assume—their proper place in the dustbin of history.”
In February, Time Magazine asked, in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel last October, the frustrated question, “Why won't anti-Semitism die, or at least die down?” They had no answer, either.
But the question must be answered in the light of the rampant, aggressive and violent anti-Semitism that is being played out with impunity - yes, impunity! – in our city streets, our university campuses, High Schools, and many other social places. Why, indeed, is it that anti-Semitism is so tenacious, enduring and has been able to quickly adapt and change to virtually any social-cultural setting over thousands of years, galvanising its hate agenda in the minds of millions so pervasively and vehemently? How has it been able to do that with apparent ease? How has anti-Semitism been so able to intimidate our university administrations into virtual silence? How has anti-Semitism been so effective in intimidating our federal government? How is it that anti-Semitism – most violently manifested in the current pro-Palestine protests in our main capital cities – is met with such appeasement by our police forces, yet individual Jewish non-protestors have been arrested “for their own safety”?
This anti-Semitism must not be confused with legitimate criticism of the Israeli government or its military strategies – that is always fair call. Our deep concern for the loss of innocent life in Gaza is legitimate, too. But this does not equate to what we are seeing now – a vicious, rampant anti-Semitism replete with chants that everyone knows have one, and only one, meaning – the genocide of Israel.
Over 23 centuries many have tried to explain the root causes of anti-Semitism. Some have argued that it is purely a sociological issue – it is the distinctive culture of the Jews that is the problem. Others have cited theological, philosophical, economic factors. But none of these can ever adequately explain the enduring, protean hatred of the Jewish people for so long. If these were the real causes, then a lot could be done to rectify so much. Yet, anti-Semitism is at its highest peak since WW2 and is spreading by the day. It’s getting worse.
There is but one reason for anti-Semitism, in my view. Just one. A spiritual reason. The Jews are God’s chosen people. God chose them to be His people on the earth to manifest His presence, goodness and blessing. They were called to be blessed and to be a blessing to the world (Genesis 12). They were also chosen to be the people prepared by God to bring forth the Messiah on the earth. As Derek Prince stated, “God’s chosen people would have one distinctive feature: the Messiah would be able to set an example of obedience to his earthly parents without dishonouring his heavenly Father by any form of idolatry. Moulded by God through many centuries, the Jewish people alone fulfilled this requirement.”
God’s choice triggered enormous reaction in the spiritual realm. Anti-Semitism has one source – Satan. And he is motivated by the knowledge that “the One who was to be his conqueror – the Messiah – would come through God’s chosen people” (Prince) and crush his head (Gen. 3:15). Ever since God chose Israel, Satan has fought nothing or no one harder and more brutally than the Jewish people. He has persistently sought to exterminate the Jews through incitement to irrational, vile hatred in many other peoples. With the establishment of the modern Jewish state in 1948, anti-Semitism – which is only ever about the extermination of the Jews – has exponentially intensified.
The sacrificial death on the cross of Christ, the Messiah, fulfilled the purpose for which He came. Jesus represented not just Israel but all nations. His atoning death satisfied the holy requirements of God’s justice on our behalf and thereby cancelled all Satan’s claims against us, and imposed upon him a total, eternal, irrevocable defeat, the full effect of which is yet to come when Messiah returns. Satan is keenly aware of all of this – he knows prophecy better than any human. And so, until the return of Jesus, he knows that he is free to continue his evil agenda, and to present himself as the god of this age …
2 Corinthians 4:4 (NLT)
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”
Satan absolutely fears the second coming of Messiah who will establish His eternal Kingdom. Right now, he is ramping up his demonic agenda with all his power to stave that off by opposing the spread of the Gospel. Here is why.
Matthew 24:14 (NLT)
[Jesus] “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.”
When Jesus comes again, Satan’s defeat will become absolute and he will be cast down to a place of eternal torment from which there is no escape. In the meantime, his demonic opposition is manifested in the visible from the unseen spiritual realm in so many world scenes today - especially in the Middle East. Anti-Semitism is the demonic manifestation of Satan’s pure hatred of the Jews and his ruthless opposition to the church’s Gospel mission … and the protestors in our streets have no idea who has incited them, or why.
The church needs to stand with Israel in powerful intercession. The church is the only authority on the earth that can bind Satan’s activities, and blunt his attacks as she spreads the Gospel in order to hasten the coming of King Jesus.
Think on these things – and pray like you’ve never prayed before, pray against the one behind the anti-Semitism. Pray peace back into our streets and public places.
Ps Milton
[Sources: Wikipedia; Time Magazine, Feb 27, 2024; Fr. Michael Flannery, in The Anguish of the Jews; Prof. Ben Segal, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1946-55); Derek Prince, “The Root of Anti-Semitism”; Andew Doyle, “The New Anti-Semitism, May 6th, 2024, substack article; & various other commentaries.]