A well-known Christian columnist is sounding a dire alarm at the rise of anti-Semitism within the Christian church.
Christian television host Rick Wiles (pictured) sits at a news desk in a high-tech production studio dressed in a navy suit, an oxford button-down shirt, and silk tie, looking for all the world like a kindly grandfather – then he utters words usually associated with a tattooed skinhead:
Wiles: "That's the way the Jews work. They are deceivers. They plot. They lie. They do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda …. When Jews take over a country, they kill millions of Christians."
Columnist Dr. Michael L. Brown, a Messianic Jew, says Wiles isn't the only evangelical exhibiting such anti-Semitic vitriol.
"It's a very disturbing trend," says Brown. "It's out there, it's fringe – but it's gaining ground. Literally, in the last year I've confronted it more than in the previous 47 years combined."
What's more, Wiles – the founder of TruNews, an evangelical online news network – and many of the others Brown sees are professing Christians.
"He's an evangelical – [he] identifies as an evangelical …. He would stand for social issues in harmony with many of our positions, and yet he's bringing reproach to the gospel," the columnist argues.
"I've been told that there are at least six different Jewish publications that have drawn recent attention to his words," he continues, "so this gives the name of Jesus a very bad feel in the eyes of many in the Jewish community."
Brown is calling the Church to repentance and action. "We have to deal with this … with the truth of the Word, but also with much prayer, recognizing it's a spiritual battle," he says.
In a recent broadcast on his network, Wiles labeled the effort by House Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump as a "Jew coup."
"This is a coup led by Jews to overthrow the constitutionally elected president of the United States and it's beyond removing Donald Trump – it's removing you and me," Wiles stated. "That's what's at the heart of it."
Brown calls Wiles' words "absolute [and] dangerous rubbish" that should be relegated to "the trash heap of ideas" and forgotten as quickly as they were spoken.
Read Dr. Brown's related commentary:
When a Jew-bashing Christian leader makes Jesus look bad