One of the most world-lauded events of 1965 was the declaration against
anti-Semitism from the Vatican ecumenical council’s last session
One of the most world-lauded
events of 1965 was the declaration against anti-Semitism from the Vatican ecumenical council’s last session. We sought out the text of this declaration to
see what it really stated and present it for our readers’ interest.
"Although
the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death
of Christ (cf. Jn. 19:6), nevertheless what happened to Christ in His passion
cannot be attributed to all Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor to the
Jews of today.Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not
be presented as rejected by God or accursed, as if this follows from the Holy
Scriptures. May all see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in preaching
the word of God they do not teach anything that is inconsistent with the truth
of the Gospel and with the spirit of Christ.
Moreover,
the Church, which rejects every persecution against any man, mindful of the
common patrimony with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the
Gospel’s spiritual love, deplores hatred, persecutions, displays of
anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time or by anyone." (Look
magazine, Jan. 25, 1966, p. 23).
This declaration might seem
placid enough were it not accompanied by a detailed exposure of all the
political maneuvering that brought it about. A more complicated background of
changes, reversals, and contradictions from otherwise "infallible"
sources, could hardly be described than that which the magazine article
revealed.
No matter what this declaration
actually says or what its writers intended, it is being construed far and wide
as the acquittal of the Jews in the death of Christ. Late last December, Jewish
leaders were interviewed regarding their appreciation of the Vatican council’s
statement. One acclaimed it "a modern miracle" that the Pope should
come forth with a statement so long overdue. The rabbi further declared that
present day Jews feel no more guilt in the death of Jesus than do modern Greeks
in the death of Socrates. History records the tragedy of Socrates’ execution as
a distinct miscarriage of justice. But to rank this as comparable to the cross
of Christ is an outrage against Holy Writ. We perceive that beneath all the
clamor of innocence lies an indelible sense of guilt.
The Bible records, "When
Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he
took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of
the blood of this just person:see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and
said, His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matt. 27:24,25). Those who
said this and their children have been attempting Pilate-like hand washings ever
since. But the Lord told Pilate, "He that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin" (John 19:11).
Another has written, "Who
would dare to aver that the atoning efficacy of the death of our divine Lord,
however accomplished, could be less than infinite? But mark the emphasis which
Scripture lays upon the manner of His death. It was ‘the death of the
cross.’ No element of contempt or hate was wanting. Imperial Rome decreed it,
but it was the favored people who demanded it. The ‘wicked hands’ by which they
murdered their Messiah were those of the heathen master, but the responsibility
for the act was all their own. Nor was it the ignoble rabble of Jerusalem that forced the Roman government to set up the cross on Calvary. Behind the mob
was the great council of the nation. Neither was it a sudden burst of passion
that led these men to clamor for His death. Hostile sects forgot their
differences in deep-laid plots to compass His destruction. The time, moreover,
was the paschal feast when the Jews from every land were gathered in Jerusalem. Every interest, every class, every section of that people shared in the great
crime. Never was there a clearer case of national guilt. Never was there
an act for which a nation could more justly be summoned to account.
"But infinite mercy could
forgive even that transcendent sin, and in Jerusalem Itself it was that the
great amnesty was first proclaimed. Pardon and peace were preached, by divine
command, to the very men who crucified the Son of God!
About this time of year certain
prophets of Christendom are quick to declare that if the Lord Jesus were living
in our day, our laws would more than protect His rights and that a Man
pronounced three times innocent by court of law would not be led to death upon
a cross. What is this but to again alleviate the Gentile guilt and cast the
blame for the untimely appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the very throne
of God. The Scripture says, "In due time Christ died for the
ungodly," and again, "When the fulness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son." Our Lord reproached the Pharisees, hypocrites of old, for
saying, "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets" (Matt. 23:30-31). "Fill ye up then the measure of your
fathers," was the taunt of our Lord, who knew that when they laid hands on
Him to put Him on that cross they would fill up that measure to the brim and
overflowing.
We have long been aware that Rome blasphemously claims the authority to forgive the sins of its penitent confessors.
Heretofore we could not imagine that the Papal See would even attempt to
relieve the guilt of the death of Christ from that nation which is still as
impenitent and unbelieving as ever! Israel’s position then was manifestly one
of rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. If present day rabbis represent that
people as a whole, we cannot see that Israel’s position is one whit changed
from the day they clamored for His blood.
God’s present sentence of
LO-AMMI (not my people) is not an eternal stigma upon that people. Isaiah
proclaims "comfort" to Israel (Isa. 40:2) but not until she has
received "double for all her sins," and the future "time of
Jacob’s trouble" is past (Jer. 30:7). For any who truly desire to see
Jewish suffering lessened and anti-Semitism diminished, we urge you to proclaim
the gospel of the grace of God to that people. Those Jews who now receive that
message will enlarge the present "remnant according to the election of
grace" (Rom. 11:5) and be raptured to glory in the church. The rest will
go into the "great tribulation" referred to by Daniel the prophet and
our blessed Saviour. That three and one half years of horror will pale all
anti-Semitic persecutions of recorded history. Those days will be so terrible
that unless they are shortened no flesh should be spared alive. Only a part of
the faithful remnant will survive that awful future scourge.
We also deplore all anti-Semitic
feeling and persecution. But the only way that judgment and punishment can be
removed from the guilty is for them to confess their guilt and receive
forgiveness through "the precious blood of Christ." Only the gospel
of the grace of God proclaims that "by Him all that believe are justified
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses"
(Acts 13:39). Thank God for the good news of salvation for the guilty— not the
innocent—"to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."