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I’m leading this call today for repentance for antisemitism in the Church and of Australia’s responsibility towards Israel and the Jewish people as an ordinary representative Western Australian.^[i]

My Family Background

Sometime after the Great Flood the forebears of my Aboriginal great-grandmother Julip Websdale seemingly were part of the first wave of migration ordained by Almighty God to come to this, God’s land.

Then from the 1840s, the first of my British ancestors came here as part of the second wave of migration ordained by Almighty God, including English free settlers, an English juvenile convict[ii] and Scottish free settlers.

From that heritage family members have been involved in Australia’s military campaigns during both World Wars.[iii] The graves of three are in the Middle East.

At a young age, while growing up on a farm at Babakin,[iv] I became interested in the land of Israel and the Jewish people, wanting to know why Australian soldiers, especially family members, had served in the Middle East.[v] Initial interest in the Holocaust also began at this point.[vi]

Living in Israel

Thus began a journey of discovery which led me to Israel as a 21-year-old hedonistic backpacker in 1979.[vii] This search for the truth led me to the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday morning in 1981, where an evangelical Anglican minister from Christ Church in the Old City spoke about Jesus being Jewish.

Deep down I must have reasoned that if Jesus was Jewish and if He was alive in 1981, then He would be an Israeli.

This epiphany was a key in my coming to faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The foundation of my faith included an understanding of the Jewish identity of Jesus and was based on Jeremiah 31:31–37 and the promise of a new covenant with the nation of Israel. In time I came to understand more about being in covenant union with Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, who is a circumcised Jew.[viii]

My first job in Israel as a new Christian was as a nurses’ aide working among both Jewish and Arabic-speaking handicapped adolescents – where I had much contact with the Arabic-speaking kids.

For the remainder of my life in Israel, this dynamic of contact with both Jewish and Arabic-speaking people continued and included living in a totally Muslim village for three years.[ix]

My second job was working among older Israelis in an aged-care hospital, which included many Holocaust survivors. Then, and throughout my twenty-five years in Israel, I was forthrightly told that the Holocaust was perpetrated by Christians – and I was often viewed in this light.

This was difficult to hear and it often grated upon me. My response on such occasions was, “But they weren’t real Christians, they were just Christians in name only.” This response though did not have much impact.

From 1986 I began working as the local guide, researcher and historian with Christ Church in the Old City, which is operated by CMJ, and ultimately came into leadership there. For these twenty years, I was serving and worshipping alongside both Jewish and Arabic-speaking staff and congregants and attended many functions together with the ecclesiastical heads of Jerusalem’s churches.[x]

These life experiences in Israel enabled me to understand, to some degree, some of the many complexities of Israeli and Middle Eastern society.[xi]

I saw there are both pleasant and not-so-pleasant Israelis; both pleasant and not-so-pleasant Arabic-speaking people, BUT that Almighty God loves them all individually. In fact, I came to realise that the only viable peace solution is for Jesus to reign in the hearts of them all.

Aside from that individual aspect I also learnt that Israel and Jerusalem are at the epicentre of international geopolitics, and the epicentre of a cosmic supernatural battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

Why is this? Because the redemptive plans of Almighty God are closely linked to when Jesus returns to Jerusalem – and all the wonderful things associated with this great event. (Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:6–11; Zechariah 12:10)

Pre-WWII Geo-Political Dynamics in Israel

Much of my understanding of the geo-political dynamics came while researching the role that the British and Europeans as well as Protestant/Anglican missionaries played in the development of Jerusalem.[xii]

This included researching the role that the ANZACs and the Light Horse played in the Middle East.[xiii] This role began at Gallipoli and continued to Beersheba, and then to Jerusalem. Incidentally, the only ANZAC soldiers involved in the capture of Jerusalem were the 10^th Light Horsemen from Western Australia.[xiv]

The capture of Jerusalem and the land of Israel from Ottoman Turkish occupation redeemed the city and land from Islamic control. Under Islam, non-Muslims were classified as dhimmis – second-class citizens.  Ever since Islamic imperialists from Arabia occupied the land of Israel in the seventh century the local people had been subjugated under the dominion of a foreign religion, culture and language.[xv]

Right-minded Christians were grateful that the region was now redeemed from Islamic control.

Plans were then laid for the formation of a Jewish national home, which was sanctioned by the League of Nations and enshrined into international law.[xvi] ANZAC soldiers had played a pivotal role in aiding with this restoration.

But then two antagonistic forces merged to hinder this restoration, and even to physically destroy the Jewish people. These forces were Islam and Nazism.

At one point in the 1930s safe havens were sought for Jewish people desiring to flee Nazi-controlled Germany, and the Kimberley region of Western Australia was proposed.  The State Government favoured the idea – but the Federal Government did not.

Nazis and Their Defeat at El Alamein

But then in January 1942 the Nazi leadership decreed to murder eleven million Jewish people – all those living in Europe – as well as those in the land of Israel and the Middle East.

The Nazis dispatched a specialized death squad to the Middle East in 1942 which was to work together with local collaborators and murder all 700,000 Jewish people living there.

This evil and demonic plan failed because the Allied soldiers defeated the German-led forces at El Alamein. Many fine men from Western Australia fought at El Alamein, including the father of Craig Beech, while among the thousands killed there was my mother’s cousin.[xvii]

The victory at El Alamein was instrumental in aiding the survival of the Jewish community. ANZAC soldiers played a strategic role in this preservation.

Church’s Antisemitism in Germany

Of late I’ve been researching the plight of the Jewish followers of Jesus during the Holocaust, and have completed five in-depth research trips to Holocaust-related locations throughout Europe.

This research has confirmed to me the deep and insidious nature of antisemitism, and that a contributing factor to the Holocaust was due to hatred and ambivalence towards the Jewish people from the Church. Many of the perpetrators of the Holocaust were indeed baptized Christians from many denominations.

If the German Church in totality had opposed Hitler’s evil designs against the Jewish people, then perhaps there would have been no Holocaust. But unfortunately, this did not happen and the Nazis were able to carry out their policy of genocide. Ultimately six million Jewish people were murdered by the satanically inspired Nazis and their sympathisers.[xviii]

History of the Jewish State

Many of the survivors joined those already living in the land of Israel and then endeavoured to establish a Jewish State, to be a haven so that such an evil would never happen again. Other survivors came to Australia.

When the United Nations voted for the establishment of a Jewish State on 29 November 1947, they also voted for the establishment of an Arab State alongside it. Unfortunately, the collective Arab leadership DID NOT, I repeat DID NOT, accept the United Nations’ decision for there to be an Arab State. They preferred instead to destroy the Jewish State rather than having their own State.

This dynamic has been happening ever since and here lies the physical core of the problem. The Islamic worldview cannot condone the presence of any non-Islamic political entity amid what it claims is dar al Islam – the region of Islam.

Unfortunately, the ordinary Arabic-speaking people are the victims of these disastrous decisions by their leadership – although they will constantly say they are victims solely of Israeli aggression.

But behind this dynamic is God’s grand plan of worldwide redemption which is centred upon the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Satan desires to thwart the fulfilment of this plan.

The existence of modern Israel and the true confessing Church, despite both being very imperfect, are two witnesses testifying to the existence of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the One who keeps His covenant promises. Thus, any ideology opposing the existence of such a God will be used by Satan to thwart these promises from being fulfilled.

This includes secular humanism in its many forms. Hence the reason why we see the merging of such strange bed-fellows these days – they all have a common goal – to extinguish the two lights testifying to the existence of a covenant-keeping God.

If Satan can cause any of God’s covenant promises to be broken then he calls into question the very integrity of Almighty God.

No right-minded Christian could ever want to see Islam in control over the land of Israel. If this goal is achieved, even in a limited form, then it will spur rampant Islam to further its quest for dominion over the remainder of the world, over dar al harb.

Besides this, what about the legacy of our ANZAC soldiers who helped redeem the land from Islamic dominion, and what about the plight of both Jewish and Christian peoples living there?

The current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza therefore is not essentially a battle of flesh and blood. This is a cosmic spiritual battle at the highest level – between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.

Satan might have been defeated on the Cross but as a defeated foe he will attempt to thwart the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plans for the world.

This involves trying to extinguish the light of the true Church; separating the Jewish people from the land of covenant promise; and, physically hassling and even destroying the Jewish people. The chant ‘From the river to the sea’ is actually a call for the destruction of the Jewish people. It is a call to genocide.

This and all other forms of anti-Jewish sentiment being expounded in our country must be called out – and the Church should be taking the lead. This call is not negating the need to call the Israeli government and army to account for their genuine mistakes; nor is it negating the needs of innocent Arabic-speaking people in Gaza and elsewhere in the land of Israel.

Let’s be frank – Israel is often very heavy-handed in its actions in the administered territories and sometimes it is hard to understand and even justify such actions.

Nevertheless, we need to keep all these factors in balance – a matter which is not easy and will become even more difficult as the situation there deteriorates and the death toll rises. But we must keep our eyes fixed firmly on God’s covenant-keeping character and His geo-political end-game.

Why is There Antisemitism in the Church?

So why is there anti-Jewish sentiment in the Church? For the fuller analysis see the writings of Michael Brown and others such as Ashley Crane.[xix] In brief, I see three basic reasons why this disease is infecting the Church:

• Ignorance of the principles of covenant, which leads to
• Covetousness, and all of this is due to
• Incorrect theology.

The very principles of covenant reveal that one’s character is associated with the ability of the promise maker to keep his promises and oaths (Psalm 15:4).

The redemptive plan of Almighty God was to overturn the penalty of death which Adam and Hava (Eve) brought upon themselves. This would be achieved by God Himself coming in human form and living a perfect life and thereby taking that penalty of death – so that humanity would not have to. This we believe was fulfilled through the coming, the death and the resurrection of the incarnate Jesus.

This plan was grounded on a covenant which Almighty God cut with Abraham, then sealed it with the swearing of an oath. This covenant and related promises were confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, and primarily relate to:

• A particular people, the people of Israel.
• A particular land for that people – the land of Israel.
• That all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the people of Israel.

Most of these promises were given specifically to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while one major promise is for all those who are in covenant union with Jesus.

Supercessionism: A False Theology

Unfortunately, the Gentile Church has often coveted all of these promises,[xx] even seeing itself as the ‘new Israel’ – a false teaching called Supercessionism. Historically, the Gentile Church also stated that because the Jewish people rejected Jesus, then God rejected the people of Israel.

Yet Simeon prophesied that baby Jesus would be the glory of His people Israel. This never happened, so must still happen and therefore God has not rejected His people Israel (Luke 2:29–32).

Then when Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem, He made it very clear that His purpose in going there was to be condemned to death by both the Jewish leaders and the Romans, but that He would rise from the dead – and that his life would be a ransom for many (Matthew 20:17–19, 28).

He also stated, “No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will” (John 10:18, Good News Translation).

Then in Jerusalem at the Passover meal, Jesus said: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Jesus was alluding to Jeremiah’s prophecy which also stated that all Israel would know God through this new covenant – something which is yet to happen.

Then while on the cross Jesus said:“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). There should be no adherence in the Church to the saying that the ‘Jews killed Jesus.’ Both Jews AND Gentiles were physically involved, while Jesus willingly fulfilled God’s perfect plan of redemption by dying (Luke 23:34).

Regarding the land and other promises to Israel, Paul wrote:

“Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:28-29)

Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

Although ‘Supercessionism’ and associated ecclesiastical antisemitism still exist, these days antisemitism often masquerades under the guise of ‘anti-Zionism.’ Much of this trend emanates from the Marxist-inspired liberation theology movement which attacks all perceived colonial and imperialist influences – and basically views Israel as a Western-imposed colonial entity.[xxi]

Such attitudes are propagated through Palestinian liberation theology and are adopted by a number of Protestant groups who openly express such views in publications and conferences. Many Western Christians are influenced by this insidious form of antisemitism.

An example is found in a statement from this movement on 20 October 2023 entitled “A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians”, which condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, but gave no specific mention or condemnation of the barbaric massacre of 7 October which precipitated the invasion of Gaza.[xxii]

 Some Christians might argue that Israel is totally in the wrong and not worthy of receiving our sympathy and support – let alone God’s favour. They might say “Just look at what they are doing to all the poor innocent people in Gaza which we see on our TV?”

Well from a purely human perspective such proponents might have a point – in part, but first, NEVER believe everything you see and hear in the secular media about Israel. Remember, much of the so-called data originates from Hamas! Second, the issue is at a higher level and it is from that level that we must view all such events. Third, if we use any measure to judge Israel, then we have to use exactly the same measure to judge the Church.

God perseveres with us, the Church, despite our many sins and faults, not because of our merits but because of His covenant grace and faithfulness. This is the very same reason why He perseveres with the nation of Israel. And I can assure you that Israel is by no means a perfect society. But then again, which society is?

What Then is Our Role Today?

What then is our role today in Australia as we witness the growth of antisemitism – even in the Church and a deteriorating situation for Israel?

The best way to approach this is to take a lead from Daniel.

Israel went into exile to Babylon because of ‘sin in the camp.’ Daniel, a righteous Israelite, interceded and repented on behalf of his people for this national sin. He asked for God’s forgiveness and restoration of blessing upon the collective nation of Israel.

Despite his individual right standing with God Daniel continually prayed in the plural that ‘we’ have sinned (Daniel 9).

We all desire to see God’s rich blessings flow into our churches, our state and our nation. But if there is racism in the Church, be it anti-Jewish or even anti-Arabic-speaking, then there will be no fullness of God’s blessing. We might think that neither we nor our Church are guilty of antisemitism or broader racism. If this is really the case then the example of Daniel is relevant and we need to plead on behalf of the collective Church.

We must do this with humility according to the principles of 2 Chronicles 7:14. In doing so let’s not forget those words of Paul, who wrote concerning Israel who had not accepted Jesus as Messiah:

“For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I can provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:13–15)

Paul then exhorts the Gentile Christians in Rome not to be haughty, boastful (arrogant) against the natural branches, the Jewish people. And neither should we – each of us is in covenant union with a circumcised Jew!

Paul then concludes:

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:25–26)

I am sure we all want to see life from the dead here in our churches, our state and our country. If so, then let’s get our collective attitude right concerning Israel and the Jewish people – and at the same time, also remembering to ask for God’s mercy upon the Arabic-speaking peoples as well. There’s no better time to do this than right now.

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Photo by Benjamin R. on Unsplash.

[i] Much of this information is to be found in a booklet, The foundations reasons behind the conflict in the land of (Eretz) Israel. Copies available from the author and Victory Life Centre.

[ii] One of the Parkhurst Boys, juvenile prisoners in England, who were illegally sent out to the colonies.  Although not legally classified as convicts, in actuality they were.

[iii] Including men from the Aboriginal Websdale side.

[iv] Between Bruce Rock and Corrigin.

[v] I was particularly interested in my Uncle John Crombie who died at Tobruk in Libya.

[vi] An Israeli-Jewish family also came to live on a farm near Babakin for two years and I went to school with the two children.

[vii] That sense remained until I had to finally leave in 2009. My first period was on a kibbutz in the north of Israel.

[viii] For more on being in covenant with Jesus see: In Covenant with Jesus & Israel, Jesus and Covenant, by the author. Copies available at Koorong and Victory Life Centre.

[ix] Silwan.  As a family we also lived for ten years in the joint Israeli-Muslim suburb of Abu Tor.

[x] Christ Church is operated by CMJ (Church’s Ministry among Jewish People). Contact details in Australia are: Martin Weatherston: weatherstonm@gmail.com

[xi] Much of this testimony is found in Bush Boys in Jerusalem, copies available through the author and Victory Life Centre.

[xii] Particularly relating to the period from 1798 till 1948.

[xiii] As a bonus I was asked to give the official explanation of the charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba on the occasion of the 100th anniversary on 31 October 2017 in Beersheba.

[xiv] For more on this see Gallipoli – The Road to Jerusalem ; Journey to Beersheba ; Anzacs & Israel. Copies from the author and from Koorong and Victory Life Centre.

[xv] The exception was during the Crusader period, 1099-1291.

[xvi] The victorious Allies also laid foundations for the establishment of five Arabic-speaking nations as well.

[xvii] For more on this subject see El Alamein – Halting an Impending Holocaust in the Middle East. Copies available from the author, from Koorong and from Victory Life Centre.

[xviii] For more on this subject see Bazyli & Anna Jocz – Jewish Christian Victims of the Holocaust, Jewish Christians in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, Seven Phases of the Holocaust. Available from the author, but also from Koorong and Victory Life Centre.

[xix] Michael Brown, Our Hands are Stained with Blood; Dr Ashley Crane,www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6VoV84yIU

[xx] Islam also covets the land of Israel claiming it as Wakf property and part of dar al Islam – the region of Islam.

[xxi] For more on this contact Prof Matthew Ogilvie of Notre Dame University in Fremantle.

[xxii] ‘A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians’: www.change.org/p/an-open-letter-from-palestinian-christians-to-western-church-leaders-and-theologians.