The traumatic incident at a church in Islington exposed the dark spiritual nature behind antisemitism. A Muslim woman entered the Angel Church, in the Angel area of London, when the Pastor and his young family were preparing for the Sunday morning service. The woman used the sound system to shout “Allahu Akbar” and “I am here to kill the God of the Jews.”
This statement exposes the very demonic nature of her threats. Here was a radical Muslim directing her threat not at Christians or Jews, but at the “God of the Jews”. Satan is the enemy of God and the spirit behind her words encapsulate the evil of Satan’s attempt to wage war on both the Jewish people and on Christians. Antisemitism is not just anti-Jewish, it is anti-God. And we need to realise that this fight is not simply against followers of the God of Israel, but against God Himself. As the Bible says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Secondly, she made her threats against the God of the Jews in a……church. It did not take place in a synagogue – although it could have quite easily have been. The spirit behind her antisemitism made no distinction. This is because both Christians and Jews worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is unlikely that this woman had a theological understanding of this…but the demonic spirit behind her ideology did. In Romans 3:29-30 we read, “Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.” Christians and Jews serve the same God, the One True God, and we must stand united in this fight against antisemitism. We must make it clear to our Jewish brothers and sisters that they are not alone. Their cause is our cause. Their fight is our fight.
Thankfully the incident at the Angel Church was resolved without the situation escalating further. The woman was arrested, and we must pray that she will repent and turn to God. But we must also acknowledge this incident as a wake-up call to the church. There is a phrase, “First for the Saturday people, and then for the Sunday people.” This isn’t just a slogan, it is a classical Arab proverb derived from the literal Arabic translation: “When Saturday is gone, one will find Sunday”. It has been used by Islamist leaders and Jihadists to mean “On Saturday we kill the Jews, on Sunday we kill the Christians.” Today, almost all the “people of Saturday” have disappeared from the countries that were their home for centuries, even millennia. And now the Christians – the Sunday people – are paying a terrible price for their faith.
“After Saturday, Sunday” was brandished as a popular slogan among supporters of Haj Amin al-Husseini’s faction during 1936-39 Arab revolt in the then Mandate of Palestine and meant that once the Jews had been driven out, the Christians would be expelled. The phrase was also made popular by Lebanese Christians who were pro-Zionist and were worried that Palestinian Muslim revolt against Britain and Jewish immigration was a foretaste of what would happen to the Christian community in Lebanon if Muslims gained power. Similar phrases were expressed in 1939 by Arab Christians when Britain introduced immigration restrictions on Jews into Palestine, voicing concern that they would become a persecuted minority under Muslim rule. And according to historians, in 1947–48, all Christians were aware of the saying: ‘After Saturday, Sunday”.
The hatred towards the Jewish people doesn’t end with the Jewish people. There are some Christians who have been misled by the false teaching of replacement theology, and consequently fail to acknowledge the intransient relationship between Christians and Jews and the connection between Satan’s attack on Israel and his attack on the Church. Radical Islam is waging war on Jews and Christians worldwide. By speaking up against antisemitism, we push back against these evil forces and show to the Jewish people that they are not alone.
