The Grey Book | Page 9

to the classical traditions. The Jew is one who
persists in the impenitent rejection of Christ, but must be saved, for it is
the Jew who has to complete the eschatological process of the
Heilsgeschichte. Therefore Jews, and especially converts, have to be
rescued from racial discrimination. Moreover, since Judaism continues
to be an integral part of Christianity, the very notion of the Jews as a
race can have no basis whatsoever in Christian theology. [31] This has
been stated as early as September 1933 by the theological faculty of the

University of Marburg in its statement against the "Arierparagraph".
Similar statements were issued by theologians such as Rudolf
Bultmann and the members of the Bekenntnis der Vaeter und die
bekennende Gemeinde (Betheler Bekenntnis), 1934 [32]. Thus, even at
the height of Nazi persecution and in times of the extermination of the
Jews, the Church would not acknowledge Judaism as a religion in its
own right and on its own terms, but insisted that a Jew who became a
Christian was merely fulfilling his predestined role; such a Jew did not
leave his faith, he returned to his true faith. It is most symptomatic and
instructive to note that in the controversy between Heinrich Vogel, one
of the leaders in the protests against the persecution of Jews and the
author of the "65 Theses of Protest" (March 1933) and Friedrich
Gebhart, a spokesman of the "German Christians" and the author of the
"Reply to the 65 Theses" (May 1933), both sides, despite their
theological and political contradictions adhere to the same traditional
Christian view that the Jews are in a state of rejection (Verwerfung).
One view holds that the Jew can abrogate his old covenant with
Jehovah and step over to the side of the Redeemer; the other holds that
the derelict Jew is beyond salvation and the redeeming influences of the
Church, that Ueberzeuging cannot overcome Zeugung, that the
Vollendung of Judaism in Christ should be turned into the Endloesung
of Jewish existence. Both, however, despite the far reaching differences
and contradictions between them, deny the Jew the right to live on his
own terms and according to his own autonomy. This approach to the
Jewish question on the part of those who protested against the
persecution of the Jews was not confined to the Bekennende Kirche in
Germany. Even the Dutch Church, in the early forties, did not deviate
from its theological tradition. A typical illustration is to be found in the
Pastoral Letter written by the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed
Church (Sept. 1941), a document that will go down in history as a
striking witness to spiritual integrity and moral courage. Although the
Letter emphasizes the fact that the New Testament is dependent on the
Old Testament (Deut. 6, 4-5; Mark 12, 29-31) and that the love of one's
fellowman also applies to the treatment of the Jew (Lev. 19, 18; Matt.
22, 39), it defines Judaism as a religion that is destined to disappear by
being redeemed through and in Christianity. Again, this is in keeping
with Christian tradition which holds that the metaphysical status of

election and the promise of eschatological salvation as given to the
Jews in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus who is "...the fulfilment
of all God's promises to Israel, the true king of this nation sent by
God..." [33] Hence, the document continues, having rejected Jesus as
the redeemer, the Jews are still sunk in sin: "...Israel did not recognize
Him, but rejected Him... In this way they hardened their hearts against
the grace of God... They are no longer Israel in the original sense of the
lord, they are 'Jews' now. A Jew is a man of Israel who rejects Jesus
Christ, and thus is to us a sign of human hostility to the Gospel..." [34]
The Church that protested Jewish persecution by the Nazis with such
courage and religious conviction still finds it indispensable to advocate
conversion as the only solution to the problem of Jewish stubborn
existence, an existence which equals infidelity:
"...The true destiny of the Jewish people lies in its Conversion to Christ,
by joining the Christian Church. The Jew remains a Jew in the bitter
sense which this word has for him first and foremost; the Jew cannot
free himself from himself, as long as he does not come to Christ..." [35]
Are there any pronouncements of the Church that offer a
Christian-Jewish relationship other than that of conversion? [36] Is
there a possibility that the Church may acknowledge the inherent right
of self-determination for the Jew, so that he could retain his identity
and not seek to "free himself from himself?" This "bitter sense" of the
Jew the Church spoke about even when protesting against Nazism, is it
indigenous to