Matthew 2:16-18: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy (Jeremiah) the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
CNN: “At least 15 people have been killed and 27 are in hospitals after a shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach yesterday. The attack, declared a terrorist incident, targeted Jewish Australians and is the country’s worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. Those killed were aged between 10 and 87. A Holocaust survivor, as well as two rabbis are among the victims. A ‘heroic’ bystander who wrestled the gun from one attacker is recovering in the hospital. The father-son duo were identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who moved to the country in 1998 and was killed at the scene, and 24-year-old Naveed Akram, who was born in Australia and is in custody.”
Fox News: “Warnings Ignored; Rabbi’s plea to Australian leader came months before murder in terrorist attack. A friend of Rabbi Eli Schlanger said warnings over rising antisemitism in Australia went unaddressed for years before his tragic death in Sunday’s terror attack during a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.”
“The writing was literally written on the walls. It was written on the walls of my nephew’s school, it was written on the walls in Bondi Junction, it was written on the walls of multiple synagogues, and the warnings went unheeded,” Jewish Israeli advocate Mor Greenberg said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
Where to even begin — yet again.
It is a happy and holy time of year, both for Jews and Christians. And yet, evil never seems to care about such trivialities. On the very first Christmas, Herod slaughtered many, many babies (Bethlehem would still have been packed by then, thanks to Caesar Augustus), just to get to one. “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not,” are among the saddest words ever written. Rachel was symbolic of all the mothers of Bethlehem, as she herself had been buried there in Genesis 35:19. Evil does what evil does, and cares not a whit for the tears and broken hearts of others.
So let me say a few things, and please understand that I am not at all apologetic about how I do so at this time.
Not only is antisemitism evil, antisemites themselves are evil. It is not that good people somehow hold an evil position in this; it is that anyone holding this evil position is a loathsome, wretched, vile, filthy, wicked individual. Anyone teaching antisemitism to others is worse still; concerning them, I would, to the descriptions above, add terms like demonic and reprobate.
For those who are trying to play “reasonable questioner” by saying things like “I am not anti-Jew, I am anti-Zionism,” please understand that you are either unbelievably ignorant or incredibly dishonest. That position is akin to saying, “I am not anti-American, I just don’t believe Americans should be able to live in America.” In either case, it ignores very long-term ties to the land (Israel’s ties to their land being about six times longer than our own), and there is no other viable place for them/us to go. Further, we/they would be exterminated in a generation or two among the antagonistic nations of the world if the attempt were made. And this anti-Jew/anti-Zionism hair splitting is not a hypothetical; in addition to the rancid universities that gladly house such nonsense, I am even aware of a “church” that is holding an anti-Zionism conference in 2026.
Should you go check it out? No. To put it mildly, your time would be better spent in a tag team match against a skunk and a porcupine; you would end up stinking far less and having to deal with far fewer pricks.
And for the governments who either turn a blind eye to what is happening, or, even worse, spin things like this into an attack on your own people who object to terrorists and terrorism, please do go look up “Quisling” sometime soon, and then find a mirror to stare at for a while as you say the name.
Hopefully, next year, the column before Christmas can be much more merry and bright.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.