I wrote this over fifteen years ago.
With all of the talk about the upcoming “The Passion of The Christ” movie, is the attempt to associate the old bogus argument that the Jews bear the collective guilt for the Crucifixion of Christ. I saw the movie and I thought it was too long and the “scandalous” temptation scene took too long. If those riled up had stayed silent this movie would have made even less money.
What people fail to realize is that this is a circular argument that falls apart if they think it through.
Proposition: The Jews (i.e. all of Jewish ancestry) bear collective guilt for the crucifixion of Christ.
Problem: Jesus is Jewish, so Jesus bears the guilt for his own death. If Jesus is thus guilty for his own death, then Jesus sinned. If Jesus sinned, then he was just a man, and all of Christianity is a sham.
Conclusion: Those who say that the Jews bear collective guilt for the death of Christ are not Christians.
The Christian Perspective: All of humanity is responsible for Jesus’ death. Jesus was sent to be a sacrifice for all our sins/guilt. If we accept this free gift, we have the gift of eternal salvation. I have heard few mention the fact that Christ rose from the dead. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, no one would remember him. He would be one of the nameless thousands who were executed by crucifixion.
The agents of anarchy who oppose the law of God, deny the reality of Christ’s resurrection, and at the same time blame the Jewish people for his death. Any one who has accepted the resurrection of Christ, knows that they are the most guilty person in their own life for the death of Christ. Yet in spite of all that, he loved us enough to die for us.
Some try to paint Hitler and his Nazi goons, the KKK, and other racist groups as Christian. Those who twist Christianity to fit their own ideas are not Christian. If they would read the Bible without pre-supposition, they would see that Jesus did not teach the hatred of his own people. Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Both the law and the prophets testify that the Jewish people have a special purpose in God’s eyes. To say that the Jews have lost this place, is to contradict the clear witness of Scripture.
The New Testament does use terms to describe the Jews in a negative light, but this is directed at the corrupt Jewish leaders who were more interested in keeping their power and position, not honoring God’s law. This is the same argument when the leaders of a failed company are blamed, but many mention the whole company by name, such as Enron. If the problem was in the management of the company, it is easy to blame former employees of the company by guilt with association, but the guilt is on the leadershp. Guilt by association may be enough cause for investigation, but will not lead up to an indictment or a conviction.
NOTE:Many millions of Jews, along with many other ethnic groups, were slaughtered in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Any one who says differently is ignoring the detailed records the Nazis themselves kept of the process.