My New Jewish Friends

Last night I attended a “get together” neighborhood event at our next door neighbor’s  house. Liz had invited three other couples, a single lady and her mother, and Sherri and me. Liz’s friend who is an outstanding pianist visiting from Philadelphia, was also there. Everyone except Sherri and me, and Liz’  friend have moved to Wake Forest from New York City and they are Jewish. Liz is a Baptist and her friend a Catholic. The reason I refer to our backgrounds is that two of the ladies are sisters and their mother who was there have a very close connection to the Holocaust. The sister’s dad and the mother’s husband was a survivor of the Holocaust.

One of the sisters, Susan, and her husband are actively involved in speaking out against the growing discrimination and prejudice against Jews in our nation. Surprisingly they have experienced some of that prejudice here in the Raleigh area as they have tried to schedule their very well done presentation. There are those who want to downplay the atrocities of the Holocaust comparing it to what the LGBTQ group has experienced. Some express doubt that the Holocaust even happened. Anti-Semitism is very real in universities such as Duke and the University of North Carolina. Susan shared some of what her dad went through. He watched as his dad was shot and killed. He saw the terrible things that the Germans did to his mother and sisters.

I think I understood correctly that Susan’s and her sister Cheryl’s dad was a part of Steven Spielberg’s documentary on the Holocaust. As Susan was telling us about her dad’s experience in one of Hitler’s prison camps I noticed her mother as she listened with tears in her eyes. I thought about the warning from wise men who say that we must remember the terrible things of the past or we will see history repeating itself. Americans must be careful. We have a Muslim representative in our congress who has made light of what happened on 9/11. There are many who even now are trying to limit what people of faith in Jesus Christ can do to express what they believe about their Lord.

Christians are being made out to be nothing more than bigoted heretics who worship a God who doesn’t exist. Could there be a day in the future of America when Christians are denied the right to express their faith? Might our children and grandchildren be put in prison for telling others about Jesus? Does the future of evangelical Christians hold for us persecution and even death? There are still many of us who seek the ways of our sovereign God. We must wake up and band together in the power of the Holy Spirit and vote against those who would pass legislation that would keep us from proclaiming the teachings of God's Holy Word. If we don’t stand up against those who hate us and hate Christ our grandchildren could experience something very much like what the Jewish people experienced during the Holocaust.

Read the book Hitler’s Cross which tells how America is moving in that direction.