By my definition, athiesm is a religion: that set of rules by which I know I'm ok, and you're not! HA!

Abortion and genocides, IMHO, have their roots in governments. I think the Spanish inquisition killed 3500 in 350 years. We kill that many via abortion EVERY DAY IN THE U.S.-GOV'T CONDONED. All of mankind killed Christ by their sins for which He was the Sacrificial Lamb of atonement. May He protect Israel and the Blessed Mother convert Muslims...

some misinformation in the article. american evangelical christians love the jewish people. they are the chosen of God and have 100% right to their land. Israel, please stand up for yourself.

What a bunch of nonsense! Of course Catholics are Christians the same as Protestants are Christians. The Catholic Church is slow, very slow to change. I think this is wonderful and no there won't be any reversal in the future. The church is simply catching up with the beliefs already held by a majority of Catholics.

I commend th author for the courage to even approach a subject most journalists (especially those in my country of U.S.A. ) believes crosses an imposed boundary line for public discussioneven though it is we who proudly boast of freedom of speachwe impose societal restraint on people's freedom to speak or write about personal religious beliefsso I find this liberating. .This discussion can be put in contextby Holy Scripture to which Jews and Christians alike subscribe to as to events leading to a Holy War or"Armageddon".This would be found in the books of the prophet Daniel and Ezekiel, whom even the Muslims acknowledge as prophets.The root isssue since 700 AD between Islam and Judaism has been who are the true descendents of Father Abraham,Is it Isaac ,son of Sarah or Ishmael,son of Hagar.Christians believe1John5:11-12 which is inclusive to all men "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His son(Jesus who is by genealogy a true descendent of Abraham)Neither the Jews nor the Romans killed Jesus.By his own words he laid down His life.Sin killed Jesus and so we all,regardless of religion or not participated and are equally responsible and by the same measure equally redeemableas expressed by the desciple whom Jesus called beloved in that most noted of all gospel verses John 3:16

Jesus is a Jew. Therefore, I see Christianity as a branch of Judaism.

"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

The Russian Revolution was entirely caused by religion. Not sure if you knew, but the Bolsheviks were almost entirely made up of Jews. Jews were a small fraction of the population of Russia to boot. That's quite a bit more than a coincidence. Not to mention that socialism qualifies as a religion as well. However, I do agree with you that religion is not a necessary component of a war. Hell, there were wars long before there was religion.

Gobbo: I couldn't have said it any better. You are spot on.

Steve: Well said. I agree with everything you wrote. It will play out exactly as you predict. The WORD of GOD promises so. Get ready people! Learn survival skills and make connections with strong and smart people. The libtards will be the first people whinning when the s!@t hits the fan. Bring on the Jihad!

Steve: It is cool to know someone else understands the truth. Well said.

Aren't there parts of the Jewish scripture that point to a Messiah and weren't some of those fulfilled by Jesus.

As a theologian and Church historian, I can assure you Christianity did not arise from Roman Catholicism. Catholicism arose 2 to 300 years after Christ and is actually a perversion of Christianity. The roots of Christianity are Jewish and like the Jews, true Christians do not pray to mortals [Saints/Mary] and they do not worship icons or idols. Furthermore, they do not believe in penance or purgatory and they certainly do not believe God's authority is established in a Pope. An historical study of Catholicism clearly shows that Catholicism is a hybrid religion formed to unite Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire. Although I will confess I believe there are some Christians in the Catholic Church, they are nonetheless in the minority and don't really understand Catholicism. True Christians existed as a remnant through the Middle Ages and reemerged during the Reformation. True Christians supported Israel from the beginning and still stand behind her. It has been and still is the Liberals and the Catholic Church that has been an enemy of the Jews. Will a word from the Pope change that? I doubt it.

tomorrow when there will be no more christians, I'll still be able to pray **as a Jew** in a mosque. I never prayed and I'll never pray in a church, but I already prayed in the prayers room of the Munchen airport, side by side with a muslim. Nice experience where I could feel the future of the present world : a huge majority of Muslim and a small square of irreducible Jews :-)

The Pope makes it official, but the Church never, AFAIK, taught that the _Jewish people_ were responsible for the death of Christ. Sure, most of the bad guys in the gospel are Jewish - but so are ALL the good guys. The references to "the Jews" in John's gospel refers to the religious authorities and collaborators, and would have been so understood by anyone at the time. Remember that most of John's disciples woud have been Jews, as were the majority of Christian converts in the early years of the Church. The author's "2000 years of hatred" depend more, I suspect, on the desire of people to find someone to blame for the bad stuff in their lives than on any meaningful theological position. Jews were convenient. Heck, look at the Nazis - they were about as pagan as one can get and they still found a way to blame the Jews for everything!

Saul is not Greek. He was born in Tarsus which is present day Turkey. He was the Pharisee of a Pharisee (Jewish). Christianity is wholly Jewish in its origins; it is not, nor ever has been, Greek in origin. I am amzed that some people will believe and print the most fantastic falsehoods.

The pope is just now figuring out what evangelicals have known for hundreds of years. Jesus said, in red letters, No one takes My life, I give it willingly. He made that know in no uncertain terms. Our sin killed HIM. He took our sins upon Himself. The argument that Jews or Romans killed Jesus misses the whole point of the sacrificial Lamb. The Bible has been specific about this for thousands of years, but for some reason, we can't seem to read it. The Jews are God's people, like it or not. As a Christian, I have been adopted in, or grafted into the Vine. To wish ill on Jews is to wish ill on my family. I can't understand why Israel distrusts evangelical Christians. I CAN understand that with Catholics. The conservative movement in America is the best friend Israel could have. Supporting Democrats like Obama or liberals is siding with the Muslims. They hate Israel and don't hide it, but most US Jews vote Democrat. Many evangelicals try to discern who the "Beast" of Revelation will be, and usually come to the pope as the Beast. Catholic prophesy says this is the last pope, so if we have another pope, he may not adhere to the old line beliefs. A liberal pope would be a bad sign, IMHO. I'm glad the pope made this statement, but a little disappointed he didn't expound more on it. IMHO, he should talk more and in depth about why the Jews didn't kill Jesus, we all did. To get in a technical back and forth about the murder of Christ misses the spiritual point. We sin, He sacrificed His blood for our salvation. Can man kill God? He wouldn't be God if that was possible.

While I agree with the author's thesis that Islam is once again on the march, his article is filled with fashionable misconceptions. First, in making his statement, the Pope wasn't articulating a new position of the Church. Catholics have long understood that Jews bear no special guilt for Jesus' death (Jesus said, "My blood will be shed for you and for ALL people...."). The Pope simply, for some reason, felt it necessary to make an official statement to that effect. Second, the author downplays the importance of political and geographical frameworks during the Middle Ages. In fact, one reason why the Europeans were easy prey for the Muslims at the time was that they were divided and fighting amongst themselves. Then there is the matter of so-called Christian anti-Semitism. In his book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope," Rabbi David Dalin points out that the Catholic Church has been a friend of the Jews since at least the 13th century. For example, Pope Pius XII, who propagandists have shamelessly branded "Hitler's Pope," is credited by JEWISH sources with saving at least 800,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Oh, and if you're wondering, those Jewish sources would be people such as Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Moshe Sharratt, the aforementioned David Dalin and the very just Gary Krupp. As for the attacks on Jews that some will inevitably cite, common sense tells you that if you have a small minority living among a different people during the Middle Ages, there will be some incidents in which a few among the majority attack the minority. But this doesn't make it a "Christian" policy any more than Jewish attacks on Christians—which can also be cited—are a Jewish policy. Anyway, to be frank, Jewish folks need to learn what side their bread is buttered on. When you sloppily spread anti-Christian misconceptions that are born of nothing but prejudice, you alienate the only friends you have. Oh, and by the way, this post was written by a man whose father was Jewish.

Hank, you write "The belief that the Jews killed Christ is absolute nonsence [sic]". The "Jews" as an ethnic group did not kill Jesus; neither are today's Jews responsible for His death because of some kind of inherited guilt. However, the Messiah was, for the most part rejected by His people, the Jews, and it is clearly related in Scripture that the leaders of the Jewish people handed over the Messiah to the Romans to be crucified. Even the name of the betrayer, Judas (Judah), draws attention to the fact that God's chosen people, on whom He had lavished so much mercy, love, and benefactions, rejected and killed Him. Acknowledging this fact is in no way anti-Semitic; on the contrary, it should lead Christians to humility and repentance, as we see how we, all too often return God evil for good. "the Holy Bible was written by Jewish writers" Except for the Gospel of Luke. "Yeshua's death for all of mankind was the greatest triump over evil in all of history in this world and the world to come. It was not a tragedy!" Was Joseph's sale into slavery by his brothers (the sons of Jacob/Israel) not a tragedy, merely because Joseph was able to help them (and be reconciled to them) later? Genesis 50:20 - "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." Rejecting God and nailing Him to a tree is an unbelievable tragedy. Luckily for the human race, God turned that tragedy into, as you said, the greatest triumph over evil in all of history. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a tragedy. Mark 14:21 - "The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born."

The chosen of God are those who believe in Christ Jesus. There is only one chosen people, one Israel of God. That is the way it has always been and always will be. God is not a polygamist; He has only one Bride, the Church. Romans 9:6-8 - "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: [7] Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. [8] That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."

It's historically not true to suggest that all Christianity stems from the Catholic Church. Christianity existed for centuries before the ascent of the Roman Papacy. All Christianity comes from Christ. As a Protestant, I couldn't care less what the Pope says. He has no authority to blame or pardon anyone. All humans are responsible for the death o the Messiah, and for that matter G-d Himself sent the Messiah to to be the sacrifice for mankind. As He told Abraham, He would provide the sacrificial lamb!

Was Ghengas Khan motivated by religion? Was Mao motivated by religion? Was Hitler, Pol Pot, or Stalin motivated by religion? They were all atheists that murdered a couple hundred million innocent souls. Was the 500 year French-English war, American Revolution, French Revolution, Spanish American War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, or even Iraqi wars fought over religion? And the list goes on. The VAST majority of wars have been fought for loot, land, or food. The only religion that kills in the name of it's religion is Islam and you're staring down it's genocidal barrel right now. This "religion" is telling you they're going to destroy your country and murder your people and Mohammad is in h3ll with a big grin on his face. Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians don't pray to an ideology that preaches hate, mayhem and death for a race of people or even those that choose not to participate in their beliefs. Islam does. So get your head out of your rear and learn a little history. They say you can tell the greatness of a nation by whether it has to build walls to keep it's people in or others out. Islam is the only "religion" on the planet that calls for the death of those that wish to convert. I'd say that's about as big a wall as you can build to keep your people in. Islam is a pox on the earth and even it's own people. Period.

True Christians hate no one in obedience to Jesus' command that we love even our enemies. all people who hate and murder in the name of God, are atheists at heart. Atheism kills--just ask the millions of people who died at the hands of Hilter, Stalin and Mao. The crusaders and Islamists alike are ultimately atheists, who deny the God that formed man and gave us laws the dictate we treat one another with respect and dignity. One can claim religion loudly and proudly, but it is deeds that proves faith true, not words. Also, Jesus' death was not an act of murder by the Jews, but rather a sacrificial act by Christ. Nowhere in the New Testament do Christ's followers call for animosity toward the Jews; in fact, Paul advocates a special love for these people. Those who persecuted Jews throughout history, do not follow the command of Christ. No matter their words, dress or authority within a so-called religious body.

@Tom - Sounds like your brain washing is complete Tom. It's obvious that you know nothing about the Catholic church.

By a long shot. Look it up.

Sorry Yossef but Saul/Paul was a Hebrew, even though I'm sure you wished he were a Greek. And he did not invent anything. He was supported by the Church, which at that time was all Jewish and he taught the tenets laid down by Jesus. Now I'm sure you equate Catholicism with Christianity and of course that's where you get the definition of Pagan Christianity. I agree with you on that point. However, true Christianity is actually more Jewish in practice than you may know. We don't believe in three Gods as you say, we only believe in One. But we realize that God is more mysterious and complex than you do. God can manifest Himself however He wishes and if He wishes to be manifested in the likeness of a man and refers to that manifestation as His Son, who are you to say He can't?

This is a very good article with one exception, and that is the Pope's Crusades were the result of Muslim expansion into Europe by force in Tours, France and in Hungary. Though it is true that Jews have been persecuted by Catholicism, what is NOT known is the millions of Orthodox Christians that were murdered by the Popes. The Jews died by the thousands, the Muslims by the tens of thousands, and the Orthodox Christians by the millions at the hands of the Popes. The Spanish Inquisition targeted Protestant Christians every bit as much as the Jews. A fact conviniently overlooked in these discussions.

Anyone who hates Jews is against God. Anyone who hates Catholics is against God. Anyone who hates is against God.

Check it out on Amazon Kindle books.

Christians believe Jesus willingly gave his life to pay the price for mankind’s sin. That simply means that ALL mankind is responsible for Jesus' death, not just the Hebrews.