Teachings 

 

Jews - Christians - Messianic Jews 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE KILLED

 

Médy Hajós

Author of The Eternal Covenant, Removing the Stones, and Engraved in His Hands, Mary Hajos traveled across Europe and the United States sharing her message of God's love and faithfulness. Born in Hungary of Jewish parents, she recognized Jesus as her Messiah shortly before Hitler's persecution of the Jewish people. Writing at the age of 88, Ms Hajos related her personal experience of the Lord's comfort and assurance during our times of greatest suffering.

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 WHERE WAS GOD DURING THE HOLOCAUST?

 It has been more than 40 years (now 60 years) since World War II and the Holocaust, yet my memories of that time remain vivid and alive. In the years since, I have traveled the world over and still, wherever I go, I hear one bitter, reproachful question over and over: „Where was God? - Where was God when His chosen people were tortured and killed?” It is my greatest joy to express to you, with all thankfulness and assurance: HE was with us! It has been my personal experience to know that we may count on the presence of God in our greatest tribulation, for He says that He will be with us.

 

In all their affliction he was afflicted,...

Isaiah 63:9

 In the spring of 1991, this truth was confirmed to me through one of the most wonderful experiences of my Christian life. Oddly enough, it occurred in a hospital room where I had to spend some days recovering from a broken rib. Although I had been placed in a semi-private room and the hospital was quite full, no one was assigned to share the room with me. I later recognized this to be part of the Lord’s Divine plan, so that He could have me totally to Himself and I could devote my full attention to Him.

 Laying in my bed expecting to soon fall asleep, imagine my surprise to suddenly become more awake than ever and sense the presence of the Lord leading me to pray! Such was my introduction to a glorious experience during which the Almighty God of Israel spoke to me through His Holy Spirit. There in the solitude of my hospital room, for two or three hours into the night, the LORD answered many of my most burning questions and unequivocally confirmed my personal experiences of His grace during the dark days of the Holocaust.

 A CONSPIRACY AGAINST GOD

 

Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I began to understand that the Holocaust was actually an attempt of the enemy of God to wipe away the People of God, who are the visible witnesses of the reality of God - of His Word and of Himself. The Holocaust had nothing to do with faith, for it was not only religious Jews that were put to death, but rather, all who were of the lineage of the seed of Isaac and Jacob were marked to be murdered.

 For, lo, your enemies make a tumult: and they that hate you have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against your hidden ones, They have said, Come let us wipe them out as a nation, let the name of Israel be remembered no more.

Psalm 83:2-4

 The Holocaust, which began in 1939, was not the first attempt to wipe out the People of God. In Psalm 83 we have a clear picture of the formation of a conspiracy which can be traced throughout history to the present day, showing us that the enemies of Israel are also the enemies of God.

 FOR YOUR SAKE, O GOD

The introduction of the Holocaust was „Crystal Night”, when hundreds of synagogues and prayer houses were torched. Torahs and Bibles were thrown upon the streets as demonized Nazis trampled them. Such acts can leave no question as to who was the organizing force behind this deplorable treatment - Satan. It can also leave no question as to who were the objects of this demonic hatred - the Jews.

 

For your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Psalm 44:22, Romans 8:36

 

Suffering for God’s sake is special and not to be compared with any other suffering. The Apostle Paul described it this way, „...I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us...” (Romans 8:18). Again in 2Cor. 4:17, Paul writes, „...for this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory...”

Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake, Rejoice and be glad: for great is your reward in heaven...

Matthew 5:11,12

This type of suffering also describes the experience of the Holocaust. Throughout Israel’s history, we see her endure two types of suffering. One type was, undoubtedly, God’s chastisement for idolatry and disobedience. The other, however, came through the hatred of the world, solely because the Jews are the chosen people of God. For this reasons, Jews who were exterminated in the Holocaust, suffered for God’s sake and were, therefore, martyrs who received the promised reward from God - they are in heaven.

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS TOWARD ISRAEL

 Through the Holocaust, we are challenged to remember the great significance and importance of Israel as the bearer of blessing for the whole world. Unfortunately, there are some Christians who, in blindness to the unfailing love and faithfulness of God, assert that He has finished with Israel. If Israel were no longer a testimony of the reality of God, the Jews would long ago have ceased to be a target of the enemy and there need never have been a Holocaust, since it was to be (as Hitler termed it), „the final solution to the Jewish question.”

In Malachi 3:6 it is written: „For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed.” God called His people into being by choosing Jacob, even before his birth, and identifies with his seed by calling Himself „the God of Jacob”. So then, the issue of God’s faithfulness it is not dependent upon whether Israel, as a nation remains faithful to religious practices and ordinances. It is, rather, a matter of whether or not God, as our Sovereign Deity, remains faithful to His Word. 

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 11:29

If God is no longer loyal to Israel, then where is the hope for the Church? The Apostle Paul was so concerned with this very issue that he devoted the entire 11^th chapter of Romans to answering the question: „Has God cast away his people?” Paul warns believing Gentiles not to consider themselves better than God’s „natural branches” that were broken off from the „good olive tree” do to unbelief. Instead, he cautions them to recognize that they are „wild branches”, grafted into „the same good olive tree,” among the natural branches which remained. Both kinds of branches are nurtured by the same root - Israel. 

Ephesians 2:12 and 3:6 explain how the Gentiles, who were at one time, „aliens from the commonwealth of Israel...having no hope, and without God in the world” became „fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel...”

Through faith in Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile are made one, „that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross...for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father,” (Ephesians 2:14,16). So then, Jewish and Gentile believers together make up the CHURCH, thereby enabling principalities and powers in heavenly places to witness „the manifold wisdom of God,” (Ephesians 3:10). „THERE IS NO CHURCH WITHOUT ISRAEL.”

 

THE TRAGEDY OF THE HIDDEN LIE

 No where in the Bible is there any teaching concerning a „spiritual Israel.” As I lay in my hospital bed, I began to understand the grave danger such a teaching presents to the Church - giving the enemy of God a hiding place from which to further foster anti-Semitism, and robbing the Church of her rightful blessing.

 We must remember that in order to for someone to „share” something with us, it must first be in their possession. If the Church is to share in Israel’s spiritual blessing, then it stands to reason, Israel must still be in possession of that blessing. Otherwise, there is nothing to share! And if Israel has nothing, then the Church has nothing also!

 Those Gentiles who label themselves as „spiritual Israel”, fail to represent that the true spiritual blessings of Israel are shared with the Jew, from whom they are received! Through this teaching, many believers are being blindly led into divorcing themselves from any further need to stand with the nation of Israel.

 During the Holocaust, many committed Christians dared, at peril of their own lives, to stand with the Jews. Those, like Corrie ten Boom’s sister and father, who went willingly to their deaths in direct defiance of the enemy, bore witness to the truth of the Gospel and their faith in God’s promises. Were their deaths in vain? This issue becomes extremely important in light of current events in the Middle East and God’s decree in Genesis 12:3 to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. Anti-Semites, no matter how cunningly hidden within the Church, remain enemies of God and under His curse.

Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

Deuteronomy 32:4

I believe this „hidden lie” is a part of the enemy’s conspiracy to wipe out the nation of Israel, an attempt to keep her name from remembrance. If this is true, then those who affirm this falsehood will also incur the wrath of God’s curse.

 

THE HIDING PLACE REVEALED

 Once the Holy Spirit had exposed this great lie that has quietly infiltrated the Church, it became important to me to understand its origins. After all, I am well aware that many dedicated Christians who love the Lord, some perhaps who even believe they love the Jews, are following this false teaching. If they are to be persuaded that it is not from God, it is necessary to understand how this teaching has been able to grow and spread through so many churches.

 Again, God in His mercy, began to answer my questions. Simply stated, this teaching is based on the false premise that the Jews rejected their Messiah and, therefore God no longer has use of them. It is clear from Scripture that anyone who teaches such a falsehood could not possibly understand God’s ultimate purpose in sending Messiah to the cross.

 According to the plan of God, Israel as a nation is not yet meant to recognize in Jesus their MESSIAH and thus believe. First, the Church has to be complete: the chosen of the Gentiles and the chosen out of Israel have to be gathered as living stones and rightly fitted together. (Ephesians 2:22.)

 If the leaders of Israel would have recognized in Jesus their Messiah, they would not have sent Him to the cross. But the crucifixion was THE MOST essential element in God's plan of redemption for the whole world. Because the Messiah HAD to die for the sins of the world, it was necessary that the lordship of Jesus Christ not be recognized. God Himself kept this a secret until His redeeming plan had been fulfilled, as Paul remarked:

 

...even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world...: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.

I Cor. 2:7,8

Throughout His ministry, Jesus went about doing good, healing the sick, feeding the hungry and teaching God's Word with great power. The people loved Him and wanted to make Him King; seeing this, the rulers of Israel were filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, and thus, plotted to kill Jesus. These rulers were, naturally, unable to recognize in Jesus the promised Messiah of God, the Christ.

For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet they desired of Pilate that he should be slain.

Acts 13:27,28

A DEATH SENTENCE WHICH BRINGS LIFE

 

..he that blasphemes the name of the Lord, shall surely be put to death...   

Leviticus 24:16

 Jesus said, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again...," (John 10:18). Isn't it wonderful that Almighty God, who had given us the law, used it to lay down His own life, and thus become the Redeemer of the world?

 When Jesus stood before the council, the high priest asked, "Are you the Christ, the Son of God?" Jesus replied, "1 am: and hereafter you shall see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven," (Mark 14:62.) Jesus was fully aware that, with this statement, He brought the law into action and would be condemned as a blasphemer. This is how He lay down His life.

THIS IS OUR GOD

 Although it was now very late at night and my hospital room was very dark, God's love was shining brightly within my heart. Having answered the many questions which had long burdened my heart, His Light had now also revealed an area of darkness within the Church which causes me great distress.

 We are now living at a time when, almost daily, we hear of the nation of Israel coming under attack either physically or politically. While Christians all across the globe are attending prophetic conferences attempting to relate these events to the time of the Lord's return, many have failed to heed His call to bless His people. What better way to show the Lord how much we love Him than by standing with His Chosen People, the nation of Israel, showing our love and concern, while waiting for His return?

 It is written in lsaiah 25:7-8 that in the midst of Israel's GREATEST suffering, she will be rescued by the returning Lord, who will finally enable her to recognize Him. Then Israel will see her Messiah and realize that this is God - none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ - who wipes away her tears and ends her rebuke among the nations for all time.

 

And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Isaiah 25:9