Nazi leader Adolf Hitler tapped into a latent and virulent strain of antisemitism in Germany, which can be traced back to the Early Church Fathers, and later especially with Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, vis a vis supersessionism (replacement theology).
Supersessionism teaches that the Church has replaced Israel (namely the Jewish people) and all of the promises to Israel and prophecies about Israel which would be fulfilled in the future are now null and void. Those who teach replacement theology will be quick to point out that they “don’t believe in replacement theology” and they’ll say that Israel expanded to become the Church or that the Church became inaugarated to become Israel. All of this is heresy. The Church and Israel remain distinct. Scripture does talk of an Israel of God, but this is a spiritual reference. The unfulfilled promises made to Israel by God are unconditional. Also there are numerous prophesies concerning Israel which have not been fulfilled. Every single promise made to Israel by God will be fulfilled. And every single unfullfilled prophecy concerning will come to pass.
As I briefly said, Early Church Fathers such as John Chrysostom wrote horrible bigoted rants against the Jews. Later, the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther initially was cordial with respect to Jews, however when he saw they were not converting to Christianity as he had hoped, he unleashed a very poisonous and wicked bigoted book title “On the Jews and Their Lies”. Chrysostom and Luther’s writings demonized Jews and only further enflamed animosity towards them. We must be honest in our account of history. Chrystsom and Luther were used by God, but they were still sinners. So we must acknowledge their ugly sin of racism.
Hitler and his SS went on to setup concentration camps where over 6 million Jews were murdered. This is known as the Holocaust or Shoa.
Chrysostom held Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and deicide (killing God, see “Jewish deicide” for the subject). He compared the synagogue to a pagan temple, representing it as the source of all vices and heresies. See his work “Against the Jews (8 Homilies)“.
As I said, Reformer Martin Luther wrote a horrible hate-filled and bigoted post entitled “On the Jews & Their Lies”. Here are excerpts. Hitler was influenced by this work.
Dispensationalists have always recognized the Jewish people’s right to the land, and have been strong and vocal critics of antisemitism, as well as very strong supporters of the Jewish people. Covenant theology adherents on the other hand have strongly supported antisemitism historically through amillennialism and postmillennialism.
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