February 2027

 NICENE GENTILE CHURCH FATHERS 

· EUSEBIUS 263-339 C.E. Although not considered a Church Father, Eusebius was very influential in the early Ekklesia. He was known as the "Father of Church History" as well as the counselor to Constantine. This is the man who called Emperor Constantine "most beloved by ADONAI," described the fourth-century church as being brought to "a state of uniform harmony," and called Jews "a people who had slain the prophets and Yeshua himself.“1 

Eusebius firmly believed, in the fourth century, that the church was the 'new Israel,' replacing the Jews. He firmly believed that there was no distinct future for the Jews in the plan of ADONAI. Following Origen, Eusebius rejected the normal meaning of the Scriptures that promised restoration of the Jewish people, or he ignored the Scriptures altogether. 2 

· JOHN CHRYSOSTOM 344-407 C.E. "No one railed against Judaism more vehemently than Chrysostom.” 3 Chrysostom was a bishop of the Ekklesia of Antioch and later Archbishop of Constantinople. Known for his eloquence of words, fittingly called 'golden mouth', He preached sermons which echo down the centuries and continue to be held as examples in 

1 Everett Ferguson, "The Problem of Eusebius" Christian Today, Issue 72 (2001). 

2 Dan Gruber, The Church and the Jews. The Biblical Relationship (Hanover, NH: Elijah Publishing, 2001), 15. 

3 Anthony Sciolino, The Holocaust, The Church, and the Law of Unintended Consequences. (Bloomington, IN:iUniverse, 2012), 13 

seminaries today. Fr. James Paries, a student of theology in 1934, described Chrysostom's homilies as worthy inspiration to Hitler and the unfolding Holocaust. He was one of the most recognized of the Nicene Church Fathers and distinguished by his hatred for the Jews. He blamed the entire Jewish race with the death of Yeshua and sought to separate Christianity from its Jewish roots. 

In Chrysostom's Homily 1 (4:1), he states: "Are they not inveterate murders, destroyers, men possessed by the devil? Jews are impure and impious, and their synagogue is a house of prostitution, a lair of beasts, a place of shame and ridicule, the domicile of the devil, as is the soul of the Jew . . . As a matter of fact, Jews worship the devil, their rites are criminal and unchaste: their religion a disease; their synagogue an assembly of crooks. a den of thieves, a cavern of devils, an abyss of perdition!" 

Although many Early Church Fathers spoke harshly against the Jews Chrysostom viciously fanned the flames of anti-Semitism that became the official teaching and practice of the Ekklesia over the next 1600 years. 

· AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO 354-430 C.E. Augustine is known to be one of the most influential theologians of the early Ekklesia. He interpreted the Scriptures by using the allegorical method of Origen, as seen in his work The City of God. He spiritualized the relationship between the Ekklesia and the Jews in events relating to the end of times and the Kingdom of God. Augustine did not believe the Millennial Kingdom was literal but rather spiritual. He taught that the Kingdom of ADONAI was present and existed only in the spiritual sense in the hearts of men. His writings became the theological textbooks for the Ekklesia. His views are still taught by much of Christendom, giving place to antinomianism and anti-Semitism throughout the Christian world today. 

James Carroll states, "His views became the official doctrine of the newly ascendant church. With reference to the Jews, Augustine embraced Replacement Theology, declaring the Jews, 'the House of Israel which [ADONAI] has cast off," Constantine's Sword. Some scholars feel Augustine was not as aggressively anti-Semitic as Chrysostom. However, Carroll holds that Augustine’s benign supersessionism would actually prove deadly to the Jews.