2 October, 2013 By Rev. Ted Pike

Bill O’Reilly announced last spring that his new book Killing Jesus: A History would demonstrate a unique perspective: that Jesus was crucified over the issue of taxes. I expected him to whitewash ancient Jewish leaders and blame secular rulers who felt threatened by Jesus’ call for loyalty to Himself alone. Surprisingly, that is not O’Reilly’s thesis. The central message of Killing Jesus is as old as the New Testament itself: Jewish leaders, offended by Jesus’ authority and rebuke, primarily persuaded the Romans to crucify Christ.

O’Reilly confirmed this in his recent “60 Minutes” interview. He said “the Jews” (by which he said he meant the Jewish [Pharisaic] leaders) were most threatened by Jesus. It was, he indicated, because Jesus jeopardized “the money flow” of revenue to the Pharisees through temple taxes. It didn't take long for the Pharisees to conclude that Jesus was their enemy.

Throughout Killing Jesus he and co-author Martin Dugard present a chronology of the homicidal machinations of the Pharisees. They relate how the people of Judea were cruelly taxed, not only by the Romans and their degenerate puppet, Herod Antipas, but also by the Pharisees and their high priest, Caiaphas. As a result, many Jews were put under great hardship and even became destitute. Roman governor Pontius Pilate had an uneasy bond with Caiaphas and Antipas; they were united by their suspicion of any mystic or reformer who might threaten their lucrative fleecing of the Jewish people. Yet Caiaphas was most anxious because the religious message of Jesus challenged pharisaic ecclesiastical and economic rulership, particularly residing in the temple and its taxing and money-changing industry. From Killing Jesus:

The Pharisees, who have appointed themselves guardians of Jewish religious law, believe that their interpretations of Scripture are authoritative…But now Jesus has chosen to interpret the Scriptures himself. And that is threatening to the establishment, as the people of Galilee are eagerly listening to Jesus. (pg. 144)

O’Reilly says Pontius Pilate and Antipas were also concerned about Jesus’ rising fame but unready to act. However,

Not so with the religious authorities. Led by the Temple high priest Caiaphas, the teachers of Jewish law, see Jesus as a very clear and present danger. Caiaphas has amassed his wealth and power through temple taxes, profits from the money changers, and the temple concession for sacrificial lambs…
Just as an armed revolutionary is a military threat to Rome, so Jesus’s preaching is a threat to the spiritual authority of the Sadducees, Pharisees and temple teachers and scribes. Thus, these self-proclaimed men of God have devised a specific plan for handling the Nazarene: a quiet arrest followed by a hasty execution. (pg. 154)

O’Reilly says things quickly went wrong.

Jesus is undermining their authority. If allowed to flourish, his movement will destroy their way of life, stripping them of wealth and privilege. And that cannot be allowed to happen. For as much as the Pharisees say they love God, most of them are arrogant, self-righteous men who love their exalted class status far more than any religious belief system…

But now Jesus, through his actions and teaching, has shown many of these [Pharisaic] mandates to be absurd and the behavior of the Pharisees and Sadducees to be even more so.

The time has come to move against the Nazarene… (pg. 156, 157)

They are now in a frenzy. Killing the Nazarene is the only answer. (pg. 207)

Judaism Defends the Pharisees

In the rest of the book, O’Reilly and Dugard continue to lay on Jewry’s evil leaders the bulk of guilt for the crucifixion. Modern Jewish defenders, such as eminent Jewish scholar Dagobert Runes, vehemently object, believing the Pharisees were the greatest moral guiding lights of Judaism for all time. “There is no truth whatever in Christian and other strictures against the Pharisees who represented the finest traditions of their people and of human morals.” (Dagobert Runes, Concise Dictionary of Judaism, New York, 1959)

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman in his book Never Again?: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism says the New Testament’s accusation of guilt against Jewish leaders for orchestrating the crucifixion is the original cause of modern anti-Semitism. It makes Jews into "Christ-killers” guilty of the supreme sin: deicide (killing God). He says this seminal New Testament lie is responsible for the preponderance of Jewish suffering over the past 2000 years, as well as fomenting the holocaust of WWII.

Clearly, Christ-rejecting Jews cannot be happy with O’Reilly’s book.

O’Reilly’s thesis, like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” delivers to the public once again what ADL and its US State Department's Office of Global Anti-Semitism describe as "virulent anti-Semitism." (See The Real Motive Behind the 'Department of Global Anti-Semitism') Countries such as Canada, under rulership of ADL hate crime laws, claim any charge that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus is an “anti-Semitic hate crime” worthy of an initial $5000 fine, plus imprisonment if repeated. Any radio or TV network that allows the New Testament accusation to be made on air will lose its broadcasting license. (See New Federal 'Hate' Bill Means Funeral of Free Speech)

With sales of O’Reilly’s book expected to soar and a movie being made by the National Geographic History channel, Killing Jesus is a threat to Jewish leaders who from the time of the Pharisees have wanted to obscure and even erase the Jewish role in the death of Jesus.

Will ADL Go After O'Reilly?

Will ADL launch an attack on O’Reilly as it did upon Mel Gibson and “The Passion of the Christ?” At present, ADL is silent about this book. What is certain is that, once again, despite every effort by Jewish-dominated big media (see Jews Confirm Big Media is Jewish) and Jewish “civil liberties” attack groups to destroy the New Testament testimony, truth is going forward, perhaps to millions.

There is very much in this book which, despite its Hollywood-style embroideries on the Biblical text, can lead many to faith in Christ. In addition, wide readership makes it harder for ADL-orchestrated hate crime gestapos to prosecute New Testament-believing Christians as anti-Semitic hate criminals. If an idea becomes culturally accepted, it is more difficult to prosecute its proponents. This is a very good and freedom-preserving result.

Jesus prophesied that His followers would also be persecuted by Jewish leaders. He said that in the last days preceding His second coming Christians would be tried in Jewish courts, flogged, and sentenced to prison (Luke 21:12 and Matt. 10:17).

O'Reilly claimed in his "60 Minutes" interview that God directed him to write this book. After seeing how it can help preserve freedom and hold back persecution of Christians, I am much more open to that possibility.

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