OPINION:
Replacement theology is nothing new to the kingdom of God. The deceptive and harmful concept that the Gentile church has usurped Israel and the Jews as God’s chosen people has seeped into Christian culture for nearly 1,800 years, and it has resulted in generational antisemitism that has reached unbelievable levels.
The war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas has further fueled Jewish and Israeli persecution since Oct. 7, 2023. It has sparked a worldwide movement — one that has clearly gained sympathy among younger Americans through dangerous doctrine taught by many churches and college campuses throughout the United States. It has led to violent protests around the globe and growing hatred from millions of today’s youth who believe Israel to be an apartheid state that oppresses Palestinians.
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The evidence?
Time Magazine reports the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents in the U.S., says such events have tripled over the past year. These statistics are highlighted by the magazine’s article titled “The New Antisemitism” by Noah Feldman, published in February 2024, in which Mr. Feldman writes, “Most troubling, antisemitism — for the first time — is growing among younger generations of Americans, portending a very different and dark future for the American Jewish community.”
Generational antisemitism is nothing new. It has taken root for centuries and has traveled the generations of the church since the merger with Rome in the fourth century. And, unfortunately, it continues to spread in America today.
SEE ALSO: End Times: Jewish and Gentile reunion is vital to God’s plans
An Anti-Defamation League survey from Time magazine reveals that, when asked the extent to which they agree with 11 different, classic anti-Jewish tropes, Millennials, followed by members of Gen Z, now lead the way in harboring the most antisemitic views. Younger generations have overtaken Gen X and Baby Boomers in those categories.
“Such tropes include allegations of dual loyalty, conspiracies about Jewish control of the media and Wall Street, or beliefs that Jews are insular or irritating,” Time reports.
A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris X poll revealed that a slight majority of 18- to 24-year-old respondents (51%) said they believed killings of Israeli citizens by Hamas could be justified by the grievance of Palestinians. The 25-to 35-year-old group wasn’t far behind with 48% of them also expressing that sentiment.
Such statistics are alarming. Kingdom leaders like Grant Berry, the founder of Reconnecting Ministries, who spoke at a Pinecrest Reunion in upstate New York in August, wonder how, with such animosity prevalent even among some so-called members of the body of Christ, Holy Spirit can truly release the measure and fullness of His glory and power that many young and older Christians so desperately long for.
“Nehemiah was given an assignment to rebuild Jerusalem, and he got off his horse to take a really good look at things,” Mr. Berry said. “We need to be like Nehemiah and do the same thing, to take a really honest look at the state of the church because we are losing the younger generation and we have to pray them back. We must be a praying church in order for that to happen.”
Reconnecting Ministries’ Romans 911 Project addresses obstacles the enemy has put in the church’s path to “prevent love and unity on both sides,” including the replacement theology espoused by many churches in America and around the world.
“The Lord needs to restore love and unity between believing Jews and Gentiles first, as this was the first breech in the church. But then what happens?” Mr. Berry said. “We take back something from the devil called division. That empowers the watchmen on the wall to go after other divisions — racial, theological and also eschatological confusion. … There are two apples of God’s eye. One is to his firstborn (Israel) and the other to the children of the nations. We desperately need each other.”
An Economist/YouGov poll found that Gen Z and younger millennials were the group most likely to say their sympathies are with Palestinians; thus the source of much of this generational antisemitism through the bloodline which seems to be reactivating.
In a November 2023 interview with Deseret News, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Samuel Abrams said younger generations’ lack of support for Israel corresponds with their lack of knowledge, the proper education of Israel’s history and its connection to its land — whether that comes from the public sector or from the church itself.
Mr. Abrams said that most certainly could lead to antisemitic attitudes seen among many young people today.
“We are living in an enormous historical deficit. We are not having conversations with the past,” Mr. Abrams told Deseret News. “Younger folks don’t know any history and they’re not being taught any history.”
That’s where The Romans 911 Project shines. It is a global message for the Body of Messiah/Christ introducing us to the Restoration, Reconciliation, and Realignment in The One New Man (TONM) between Jews and Gentiles, all races and peoples in the family of God — referred to as “The Reconnection.”
While young people today in the church are faced with discernment about many cultural topics, Mr. Berry believes the most important one concerns Israel and the church and what the Bible says about its role in the end times.
Replacement theology and generational antisemitism has muddied their understanding of God’s Word, especially when it some to Israel and the end-times, there is great confusion, Mr. Berry said, which has become perilous for the part of the church that is not subscribing to God’s covenants and promises to restore Israel to the family.
“The sexual gender issue will not be the last dividing issue that we are facing,” Mr. Berry said. “It will be the Israel issue, and we have seen it already. The church that is still under these influences, or still being affected by them, is in a dangerous place because God’s Word is clear. God has covenanted to restore Israel to Him and to us, and none of us can come into our inheritance until Israel says, ‘Baruch haba b’shem Adonai,’ (‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ - Matthew 23:39. In other words, until our first-born family, the Jewish people, embrace Yeshua as their Messiah). We are seeing antisemitism arise over the earth, and it’s scary! But I wouldn’t want to be the one that is against Israel and the Jewish people when Jesus comes back.”
Shifting the narrative about Israel among the younger generations in America might seem to be an insurmountable task. And while God is the God of the impossible, Mr. Berry said, it will take a dedicated effort by the church to spark the change that God’s heart desires. But it all starts with prayer!
“There is a whole lot more here than just blessing Israel … and God is calling us into the fray,” Mr. Berry said. “There is a battle to be fought and won for our children, for Israel’s salvation, the end times harvest and the return of the Lord. If we think the enemy is just going to be pushed over easily, it isn’t going to happen unless the church gets on its knees and we commit to prayer and repentance to reunifying and beginning to release that governmental authority the Lord wants us to raise up. We’ve got to take back our communities and we have to get the next generation back into the kingdom.”
Mr. Berry said the church must come to understand that Jesus, indeed, is Jewish and is coming back to establish an Israeli monarch on earth.
“We, His children from the nations who endure will rule and reign with Him together with Israel as its representative in the commonwealth of nations (Ephesians 2 and 3),” Mr. Berry said. “This is the One New Man in Messiah/Christ.”
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Shawn A. Akers is a freelance writer for Reconnecting Ministries and the former managing editor of Ministry Today magazine. Author and speaker Grant Berry is the founder of Reconnecting Ministries and author / Producer of The Romans 911 Project.
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