As Christ Opens The Fifth Seal Essay

Consistent with Rossel, Germany has had a past of anti-Semitism, starting in 1542 when the great German Protestant leader Martin Luther wrote a booklet called Against the Jews and Their Lies. Even earlier the Catholic Churches had taught that the Jewish people killed Crist and should therefore be hated (10). Early teachings of anti-Semitism lead to a hating of the Jewish community, but with the German’s calling themselves the “Aryan Race” and the Jewish people calling themselves the “chosen one’s” there was bound to be competition on who was superior.

Many religious conflicts are built from prejudice. However, only few will have a lasting effect on the world’s history. In Germany in the year 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler rose to power. His mission would be to “exterminate” all minorities, but most importantly, the Jews. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire". But as we now know in history, the Holocaust was the genocide of six million Jews by Hitler and the Nazi regime. Over the time of Hitler's reign, the Jewish population would be stripped of their rights, dignity, and most preciously their lives.

Horror struck on January 30, 1933, when Germany assigned Adolf Hitler as their chancellor. Once Hitler had finally reached power he set out to complete one goal, create a Greater Germany free from the Jews (“The reasons for the Holocaust,” 2009). This tragedy is known today as, “The Holocaust,” that explains the terrors of our histories past. The face of the Holocaust, master of death, and leader of Germany; Adolf Hitler the most deceitful, powerful, well spoken, and intelligent person that acted as the key to this mass murder. According to a research study at the University of South Florida, nearly eleven million people were targeted and killed. This disaster is a genocide that was meant to ethnically cleanse Germany of the Jews. Although Jewish people were the main target they were not the only ones targeted; gypsies, African Americans, homosexuals, socialists, political enemies, communists, and the mentally disabled were killed (Simpson, 2012, p. 113). The word to describe this hatred for Jewish people is known as antisemitism. It was brought about when German philosophers denounced that “Jewish spirit is alien to Germandom” (“Antisemitism”) which states that a Jew is non-German. Many people notice the horrible things the Germans did, but most don’t truly understand why the Holocaust occurred. To truly understand the Holocaust, you must first know the Nazis motivations. Their motivations fell into two categories including cultural explanations that focused on ideology and

It is a universal maxim in the tenets of the main monotheistic religions, that, if a Christian/Jew/Muslim holds true to God, they will assert the continued existence of, “the self,” the monotheistic-trio’s idea being the most overt with Judaism, one of the trio, during the dark period of history titled the Holocaust. From 1933 to 1945, the Holocaust was essentially a methodical killing of certain categories of people - 11 million total, 6 million being Jews, the rest being Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled - by a party of cold, intelligent, unempathetic people, going by the name of Nazis. However, ‘twas not always direct killing, but sometimes the killing of “the self,” that being defined as a person’s ability to make personal decisions

“Jews were initially the subject of primarily religious intolerance: they were despised for the arrogance of their monotheism, vilified as Christ’s murderers, and identified with the devil. Later during the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century, with the rise of capitalism, they would experience a social form of prejudice… a mixture of resentment and jealousy over the seeming ability of Jews to make good on the scarce opportunities offered them by capitalism and liberal society. It was indeed only in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century… that Jews would experience the new political expression of Judeophobia commonly known as anti-Semitism.”

There is always an entity in the air, a presence that encroaches beneath the ground, or even an engrossing feeling that is within the human psyche. This invisible social force that influences everyday life is called prejudice, to which the excruciating backlash Jews have received for their cultural identity and traditions even has a term for it: anti-semitism. There are a large variety of anti-semitic myths that been associated by inaccurate stereotypes to which ignorance continues to breed. In order to properly understand how to debunk these pigeonhole categories, three particular myths will be explored to further comprehend how anti-semitism was in the past and how it currently relates to contemporary times. Jews known for contributing to well poisoning during the Black Death alongside how this group has been linked to being known as “Christ killers” and “ritual murders” provide an ugly, erroneous portrayal that harms the Jewish community and should be ended immediately.

The Jewish Holocaust could be, and is, widely accepted as one of the most brutal and damaging atrocities ever to occur in the history of humanity. The level of brutality brought on by this atrocity is to such a degree that whenever the word “Holocaust” is mentioned it is not the Greek origins of “offer burning” that comes to mind; but, instead, the thought that resonates is the death of approximately 6 million Jews and other minorities brought on by racial hatred, radical ideology, and established prejudice (p. vii). There is no question that a main goal, and often argued by historians as Hitler’s topmost priority, in order to create Third Reich, that would supposedly last 1,000 years, was to expel Europe of any Jewish presence. Nonetheless, similar to that of any large scale operation, an expulsion of Jews from Europe would take time and different phases to achieve efficiently and effectively. The Nazi program, according to Bergen’s ‘War and Genocide”, would attempt to accomplish this through five phases: support and encourage public oppression of Jews, isolation of Jews from the community, mass killings, and, lastly, the “Final Solution.”

Elaine Pagels seeks to clarify ongoing questions with Christians and Satan and how Christians managed to create such a demonic figure in The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics. Pagels aims at taking a very complex subject and making her readers understand how Christianity developed along with Satan. Pagels gives several examples from many different time periods. This paper will aim at summarizing main points on how Satan was created. As well, how Christianity used Satan to demonetize Jews, Pagans and Heretics. Further, a brief opinion on if Christians had not developed Satan how would western history be different today. Satan continues to be one of the most recognized figures in today’s culture, considering out how this figure came to be is complex yet fascinating.

Historically, a lot of awful things have happened to Jews throughout history. From the exile in Babylonia to the destruction of Jerusalem and all the way to the Holocaust. From these tragic events, questions develop on if God is with them? Has God abandoned them and let the world persecute them? Are these just test? And the biggest question is how does this affect the Covenant? These events have greatly impacted Jews from their identities as humans to their religious identities and have impacted their relationships with followers of other religions. Although, I am not a Jew and I have some knowledge of Judaism I can only somewhat answer that with the bias of how I view God. This paper will mainly be Holocaust focused because I have more thoughts

To begin to understand the reasoning behind the Holocaust, the origins of the Nazi’s hatred for the Jews must be evaluated. Anti-Semitism was a leading factor in the rise and conduct of the Nazi regime and Hitler’s relentless mission for ethnic cleansing sparked the debate of whether or not the extermination of the Jews was Hitler’s plan from prior to war. Anti-Semitism was used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis who exploited anti-Semitic myths, many of which had been embedded in European culture for generations. They promoted the idea of a 'master race', claiming that Germany should be a nation of pureblooded 'Aryans', uncontaminated by the influence of inferior peoples such as Jews. It has been suggested that it is significantly easier to

Despite 2,000 years of continuous residence, Europe’s Jews were rarely given complete citizenship status in their own countries. Their social and religious distinctiveness made them persistent targets for economic, social and personal persecution. The increased participation of the Jews in the economic and social life of 19th and 20th century industrial Europe intensified anti-Semitism. The Nazi policy of racial hatred amplified and manipulated these patterns of persecution, ultimately adding one deadly tenet that all Jews must be eliminated.

Prejudice has been a constant scourge on human history with anti-Semitism at the forefront of this insidious social condition. The rise of Nazism was a frightening phenomenon for the peoples of medieval Europe and in its desperation it inspired an opportunity for some to practice a latent prejudice over the Jews. The persecution of Jews during the rise of Nazism was inspired by a government who identified an advantage to further its own political agenda. This is evident through a discussion of the history of anti-Semitism, how anti-Semitism rise and how the Nazis used anti-Semitism to their advantage.

“The late war, awakening all the primitive racial fury of the Western nations, and therewith all their ancient enthusiasm for religious taboos and sanctions, naturally focused attention upon Nietzsche, as upon the most daring and provocative of recent amateur theologians. The Germans, with their characteristic tendency to explain their every act in terms as realistic and unpleasant as possible, appear to have mauled him in a belated and unexpected embrace, to the horror, I daresay, of the Kaiser, and perhaps to the even greater horror of Nietzsche’s own ghost. The folks of Anglo-Saxondom, with their equally characteristic tendency to explain all their enterprises romantically, simultaneously set him up as the Antichrist he no doubt secretly

In Scripture, the first four seals show horses and riders in the form of astonishing metaphors, and imagination. Obviously, it is not God’s intention to tell his believers who these people are, but to teach them what to look for during world conditions. These Four Horsemen represent a snapshot of man’s inhumanity to man. They are a prediction of how people behave under extreme conditions when the universe cannot settle God’s real purpose. While this is not new for most governmental leaders, but when events because of fellow humans distress and sufferings by broken promises that follow poverty, famine, death and wars, the reject causes alternative lifestyles. It is no surprise that in Satan’s World War II, these Four Horsemen as part of the Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation leads an incredible political upheaval in Europe and Asia as if forces their nationals to choose their master. In fact, Matthew 6:24 primarily describes this when he tells, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will devote to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” . For one, Adolf Hitler believes he is the master, and the Nazi’s see him being the new host of the world. To his people, and through his astrological predictions he is as the next ruler of the world he claims his Axis Powers as Horsemen with Russia’s Joseph Stalin, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, and Japan’s Emperor Michinomiya Hirohito, as part of his royal empire.

Friedrich Nietzsche devoted his life to the study of philosophy and ethics. In particular to topics regarding Christianity and Atheism. A majority of his writings are against Christianity and The Antichrist is no different. The following paper will look into what Nietzsche wrote in The Antichrist and explore the ethical principles that he proposes and dismisses in this writing.