On Zionism and Antisemitism

A recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast with Ian Carroll brought to the fore some “conspiracy theories“ that have been simmering under the surface among the Christian dissident right for some time. Is there really a secret cabal of rich Jews that is making war on Christendom?

As per usual, the Internet is ready with two polarized responses – “yes, absolutely, the Jews are the worst!” And “no, that’s crazy conspiracy talk, America and Israel are BFFs!”

If we are going to have productive dialogue on this topic, we need to recognize a few things:

1. Dispensationalism is bad juju. As Christians, we should be loyal to the people of God, and the people of God are those who are in Christ (Gal. 3:7). While Israel has a special place in our hearts – beloved for the sake of the fathers (Rom. 11:28) – Israel is just another nation, when it comes to our political duties. This means that we should support them when they are doing righteous things. It also means that we should oppose them when they are doing unrighteous things. Fundamentally, it means that we should speak the truth about them and deal with them in a way that honors Jesus Christ, the King, and that takes care of the people in America, which is the duty of the American government.

2. There is a knee-jerk reaction among conservative Christian normies to immediately condemn any questioning of World War II and its surrounding narratives, or of the moral perfection of Israel in all that it does, or of the right of a group of politicians to decide to repo a piece of land in the Middle East and give it to somebody else– there is a knee-jerk reaction to condemn such questions as racist antisemitic conspiracy theories. But this is not at all helpful.

These are questions of truth, and they should be discussed maturely, calmly, and factually. If Israel really is meddling in US affairs in shady ways– wouldn’t you want to know? And would it not be possible to investigate that without having a mindless blanket hatred for all Jews?

This is worth emphasizing yet again. There is “antisemitism“ legislation being advanced currently in the US which effectively outlaws saying that “the Jews killed Jesus.“ But this is a phrase that Scripture explicitly says – in other words, this is a law that effectively outlaws the Bible.

Now, the people in our government who are bought and paid for by Jewish political action committees will tell you that that’s a conspiracy theory and “it will never happen.” But when it comes to government leaving Christian speech unrestrained, let’s just say that every Christian should have trust issues.

3. Is actual antisemitism bad? Yes, it is, in the same way that any other ethnic partiality is bad. And therefore it should be rebuked in exactly the same way. No special treatment; just because Israel is an ally of the United States does not mean that Israel should be treated any differently than any other ally of the United States.

4. We certainly should not be making connections between Israel and Christianity, as if we are on the same team or members of the same faith. Scripture could not be more clear – the Jews, who rejected the Messiah, were actually perhaps the most opposed to the church.

It is not loving for Christians to soften this distinction at all. The Jews need Jesus, and until they accept Him as their Messiah and King, they are under His wrath and judgment – they are enemies of God, not the people of God. If we tell them anything less than this, then we are doing them a great disservice by inoculating them to the Gospel of the Messiah.

5. There is a real danger, for the people who do want to ask these questions, that – encouraged by the ostracization that they receive from the normies – they become tinfoil-hat-wearing crazy people. “Well, if you’re going to call me antisemitic, I guess I may as well be antisemitic! Check out my Swastika tattoo!“

And this is not entirely the fault of the normies either; the human heart is happy to find any excuse to exalt self and condemn others. The worse the Jews are, the better that makes me right?

But this ethnic partiality is antithetical to the Gospel. This kind of real racism shows up in every people group, and it is easily identifiable because it always locates the center of the problem in a different ethnic group than the speaker. Black people believe that black people are the best people, and white people believe that white people are the best people, and they both hate the Jews, and meanwhile the Jews think that they are the best people – you can tell that it’s all bogus because if any of it were true, then it wouldn’t be so predictably self-serving.

6. At the end of the day, everybody needs to calm down. Some people need to stop using “the Jews“ as the punchline of every joke and the scapegoat for every problem (incidentally, this exhortation is just as applicable if you swap “the Jews” for “women”).

Either you guys legitimately are racist, and you should repent, or you’re just being foolish with your speech, and you should repent. You are obfuscating the issues and making everything harder for everybody.

On the other side, responses of “quit talking about crazy conspiracy theories” are not helpful. You can’t just stamp out conversation and think that that’s going to make the problem go away. There are real questions here. Don’t take my word for it- take Rep. Massie’s.

If the historical and current facts that are being cited by some of these “conspiracy theorists” are inaccurate, whether it’s about Epstein or AIPAC or whatever else, then demonstrate that to be the case. Simply saying “you are not allowed to ask those questions” does nothing except for empower the theories.

To sum up? When it comes to Israel… as with anything else… honor Jesus, do justice, and talk like adults.