A contemporary expression of hostility toward Judaism and Christianity

Some thoughts on "So, Then, Who Rules the Jews" from the Odysseus Unsheathed Substack

Introduction

When I first started to get involved with Substack, there was an ongoing debate about the significance and relevance of neo-Nazis or maybe even Nazis posting on this platform.

Some claimed to be very concerned about being involved with a platform that allowed Nazis and white supremacists to participate. Others, myself included, thought that was only a tactic to begin a program of censorship that would apply an elastic definition of “Nazis” or “neo-Nazis” in order to stifle other more legitimate views that were disagreeable to the left.

That sort of died down overtime. Some of the thought police left when they found they were not getting traction, and maybe also the Substack management tightened up their editorial policies and got rid of some undesirable characters. I have no idea.

Well, recently I ran across a post very critical of Judaism and of Jewish Christianity that had some authentic National Socialist themes - not that I am concerned about it. I do not see such views as a threat. On the contrary, I thought an examination of the article would be a useful opportunity to clarify some misconceptions about Judaism and Christianity.

People are increasingly ill-informed about many things these days. The inadequacies of our public educational systems are a subject of legitimate concern and are often discussed, even by secularists who are concerned only about knowledge in general and have no great concern for religion.

Be that is it may, the fact remains that the intensifying darkness of modernism, postmodernism, secularism and materialism has the inevitable result of people knowing less and less about religion, particularly about the two religions, Judaism and Christianity, that used to be considered foundational to Western culture.

So, I am going to write a few comments about this article, not with a view to a point-by-point rebuttal, but only as an opportunity to clarify some common misconceptions - though some rebuttal will be attempted.

The article in question is “So, Then, Who Rules the Jews?: The priestly ruling class inside the priestly ruling class of the murderous Jehovah slave world” by Craig Nelsen.

Let me begin by highlighting five different elements of National Socialist thought that I detect in this article - and I do not mean that in a propagandistic sense. My aim is not to prejudice people against the article. Rather, I have an interest in the subject of the churches in the Third Reich, and think the question is of more relevance to us today in the US of A than some might think.

Briefly, the article argues that Judaism is bad, a menace, a threat, and Christianity has been compromised by adopting Jewish values.

Before continuing let me say that I am not offended, hurt, upset, or even surprised by these and other remarks. They fall within the boundaries of legitimate discourse as far as I can see. At least there are no open calls for violence - although the level of understanding of scriptural Christianity and biblical Judaism is not very high in my opinion.

In all of this I have made a conscious effort to be fair, and will carefully consider any criticisms.

Some German National Socialist elements in the article

I noticed five different elements of Nazi doctrine in this article. Thus, it was written from the point of view not only of secular philosophy, but secular philosophy of a particularly virulent type, Some of these ideas were circulating in 19th-century Germany before Hitler was even born.

(1) The author sees insidious Jewish control behind the scenes. He refers to the “Jewish-controlled press” in America, and sees our political system as dominated by the Jews as well. Thus the flooding of America with non-European immigrants is the direct result of a Jewish plot. In Nelsen’s words,

The racial transformation of the United States was underway and, with it, the disempowerment of whites. Jews had pulled down and destroyed the old, white America.

This is with reference to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, promoted by Ted Kennedy and signed into law by LBJ, both of them tools of the world Jewish conspiracy. “The Jewish-controlled press - i.e., the press, blatantly lied about what the bill would do.”

For another example:

All human activity rooted in Judaism is directed at a single goal: Jewish supremacy - i.e., world Jewry as the priestly ruling class in a supranational god-world . . . we are here to serve the Jews.

If the Jews really had such power, why didn’t they prevent the holocaust? Surely it would have been child’s play for the world masters of Zion to have Hitler assassinated, or to assemble a world coalition of all the countries they controlled and destroy Hitler in 1933 before he had time to rebuild his army.

(2) Judaism is inherently bad, and seeks to overthrow the Gentiles and gain control of the whole planet. The Jewish priestly class “wants to make the whole planet a ‘God-world’. ” And,

It was not a thirst for eternal truth in the incorporeal world that produced Judaism, but a lust for power in the political world . . .

(3) Like the Nazis, Nelsen sees Christianity as contaminated by Jewish ideas. Thus, Christianity itself is now a harmful extension of Judaism that needs to be removed.

A couple of centuries after the birth of Christianity, the Church willingly embraced the same document [the book of Deuteronomy] that calls for their own enslavement. Christians gave the god of the slavers and their own god equal divine authority . . . for the sake of which Christians are willing to endorse any sort of evil up to and including their own annihilation.

Parenthetically, the rise of German nationalism and secularism in the first half or three quarters of the 19th century was accompanied by an increasing hostility to Christianity. Folkish writers such as Paul de Lagarde and Julius Langbehn saw Christianity is an alien Semitic and Mediterranean import that needed to be cleansed of its Jewish influences, if not scrapped entirely.

(4) A new religion is needed to replace Christianity. At the end of the article the author calls for “a religious revolution” to free us from the grip of the Judeo-Christian God. He does not tell us exactly what he thinks would be a suitable replacement, but does say that we need to scrap the Bible - preferably the whole thing, but at the very least the Old Testament. “At least practice harm reduction and jettison the Old Testament,” he says, although he finds Christianity also to be “distorted” and “primitive.”

Possibly he does not present his own alternative because he has no definite ideas as yet - or possibly he does have ideas, but feels it would not be politic to reveal them at this time. Whatever the case, we know what sort of substitute for Christianity the Nazis sought to establish: Aryan supremacy; life as a pitiless struggle for survival in which death was no more than an ordinary fact of life; and a complete repudiation of traditional values greatly influenced by Christianity in a general way.

We know the final result of that experiment.

(5) The fifth and final element shared with National Socialism is a concern for the continued dominance of the white race.

For 40 years, the policy held [referring to racially restrictive immigration laws of the 1920s]. The US remained overwhelmingly white . . . But during that 40 year period, Jews never stopped trying to undo the restrictionist legislation of the 20s.

Personally, I disagree with all of his points.

(1) I do not believe that the Jews have a great degree of political control. The Jewish and Israeli political lobbies in Washington are legitimate as long as they are open and legal (and if there are any illegal lobbying shenanigans, the Jews have no monopoly in that area). I think support for Israel is and has been in the American national interest, and that popular support for Israel has been one of if not the main reason that Jewish lobbying has been effective. Even in the recent Gaza conflict, a significant number of Americans think that Hamas is to be blame and should be thoroughly destroyed (though sincere Christians may disagree with me).

And, why blame the Jews for our own laziness, stupidity and incompetence? Haven’t the American people at large been sound asleep while forces inimical to democracy have established themselves in our educational systems, our entertainment industry, in our governments and legal systems at all levels?

(2) Neither do I believe that Judaism has had a negative influence on the world. Through the medium of Christianity, the Jewish belief of a single, all-powerful and personal God has enriched and blessed the world. After the advent of Christianity, I believe rabbinic Judaism has been in error. Believers in that will of course think I am in error, and there is no harm to me or to Christianity in that. But I do not believe that sort of Judaism has had any harmful effect on the world at large.

The return of the Jews to their historic homeland and the reestablishment of the state of Israel I also see as positive and even great achievements, a rare bright spot in the dismal 20th century. I also consider this to be the work of God and part of his plan for the human race. Again, sincere Christians may disagree on that, but I do not see how anyone who sees God as being active in the world can assert that God had nothing to do with the survival of the Jews over many centuries, with their return to the land, and with their victories over those who would destroy them.

(3 & 4) When it comes to Christianity being a distorted and primitive religion corrupted by Judaism, I assert that the teachings of Christ, as they are expressed in the historically accurate and error-free accounts in the four gospels, are the solution to America’s problems. I understand that is not a solution most people are interested in, and attempts to impose Christian values through politics have failed badly (as in Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority or Pat Robertson’s presidential bid). But what this country needs is more Christianity and not less: more morality, more honesty, more hard work, more thrift, more wisdom and far-sightedness, more justice, and less of the false wisdom and light diversions of the world.

(5) As to the decline of the dominant white race in the USA, that does not concern me. I think it is God’s judgment on America. Dozens of millions of babies have been lost, so this is what we get instead. God has blessed America with peace, prosperity and security in the past, and he is now taking them way. How far will this process continue, and how fast? That depends on God - that same God whom we as a nation have rejected, ignored, defied, mocked and ridiculed.

Beyond that, I see three fundamental mistakes underlying Nelsen’s whole article. The first is thinking that Judaism is merely a human invention of power hungry priests; the second is in not properly understanding the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and of the real nature of the differences between them.

The third is that he focuses on only one book of the Jewish scriptures, the book of Deuteronomy, and this he does not understand. For example, when God promises victory over their enemies to the Jews, he is not talking about world domination. He is talking about the promised land of Canaan, the boundaries of which are specifically described in chapter 34.

Deuteronomy 28:1, which seems to speak of world domination, has to be rightly understood.

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth.

This can be regarded as fulfilled during the reigns of David and Solomon, when the Jews had the knowledge and the blessing of the one true God to an extent seen nowhere else in the world. They were blessed not only with prosperity and security, but with a knowledge of God that did exalt them spiritually over all the other nations of the earth - although in a very short time they were cast down from that eminence because of their sins (as their own prophets have plainly stated).

Then there is the vision of Isaiah chapter 2. I won’t call it “sublime” because “sublime” is too paltry a word.

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The nations will come voluntarily to worship God, not as captives in bondage and subjection to the Jews. Moreover, it will be a time of world peace. This will be accomplished by God himself judging the nations, not by any clever behind-the-scenes conspiracies, and certainly not be any humanistic world governments.

Finally, Nelsen missed many other books of the Jewish Bible - books of divine wisdom, of prophecy and poetry, of constructive and necessary moral laws, of spiritual light and healing, of God’s mercy and goodness. But there is also God’s anger and his severe judgments, which are also described in the New Testament.

Conclusion

Much more could be said about these topics. There are significant differences between Scriptural Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. There are different ideas of sin, of forgiveness, of righteousness, of the identity of Christ and the nature of God’s law - but there is a common belief in a supreme God who created the universe and us as his creatures in it; in the existence of moral laws independent of any human origin; of the need to live lives in obedience to God’s will and purpose for us.

These supply sanity, discipline, decency, justice and truth in life in a way that the secular view of human beings as accidental creations in a meaningless universe cannot.

To put it another way, secularism has failed, and we can only expect that failure to grow and deepen and intensify, to the detriment of what used to be called Western civilization.

It is the rejection of these ideas that lies behind all of our current problems - and without the proper spiritual solutions we can only expect things to get worse.

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