Four Blood Moons (17 page)

In 1481, fear of Jewish influence led Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to pressure Pope Sixtus IV to allow a monarchy-controlled Inquisition in Spain by threatening to withdraw military support at a time when the Turks were a peril to Rome.
²
Their request was granted and in 1483 the Dominican confessor of Queen Isabella was appointed Inquisitor General of Spain; his name was Tomas de Torquemada. Through his villainous acts of torture the Spanish Inquisition ultimately surpassed the Medieval Inquisition of 1233 in scope, intensity, and atrocities.

Torquemada quickly established malicious and cruel procedures for the Spanish Inquisition. A new court was announced with a thirty-day grace period for confessions and the gathering of accusations by neighbors. Evidence that was used to identify a crypto-Jew (secretly observant) included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays (a sign the family might secretly be honoring the Sabbath) or the buying of many vegetables before Passover or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher.

The Inquisition's court employed physical torture to extract confessions. Crypto-Jews were allowed to confess and do penance, although those who relapsed were burned at the stake.
³

The Medieval Inquisition originated years before as a Roman Catholic tribunal for the discovery and punishment of heresy. It was created under Pope Innocent III of Rome (1198–1216) and later established under Pope Gregory IX in 1233.
⁴

Anti-Semitism sponsored by the Roman Church began to manifest itself openly in 1412, when Jews were told they would have to live in separate quarters. These isolated quarters were the later template of the Polish ghettos established by the Nazis (1939–42) and the Minsk Ghetto of Russia (1941–43).
⁵

In addition to being forced to live in the ghettos, the Jewish people were told they must distinguish themselves from Christians by allowing their beards to grow out and wearing the yellow Star of David on their clothing. The Jews could no longer hold public office, could not be physicians, and could not lend their money with interest. All schools and professions were closed to the Jewish people, and all commerce by which they might make a living was prohibited.
⁶

This was only the beginning of the persecution, torture, and death of the Jewish people by the Roman Church's Inquisitors. In less than twelve years the Inquisition condemned no fewer than thirteen thousand Jews, men and women who had continued to practice Judaism in secret.
⁷

I now take you back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
who established and controlled the Spanish Inquisition. The monarchy took increasingly drastic measures against the Jews and on March 30, 1492, at their palace in Granada, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed a decree ordering the Jews to leave Castile and Aragon by August 1. This was known as the Edict of Expulsion, which banished all Jewish people from Spain who refused to convert to Catholicism.

The ousted Jews were stripped of their wealth, for the Edict prohibited them from taking gold, silver, and precious metals. More than poverty, however, the decree meant homelessness and uncertainty, since the Jews did not know which nations would receive them. They also feared the journey, which would bring death to those too weak to endure it.

Christopher Columbus recorded this infamous edict in his diary:

In the same month in which their Majesties [Ferdinand and Isabella] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.

The expulsion that Columbus refered to was so cataclysmic an event that since then, the year 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community that had not
been converted or killed—some 200,000—were expelled from Spain.
⁸

The Jews were given the date of August 1 as the deadline for their departure from Spain, but some left the following day, August 2, which was the 9th of Av (
Tishah b'Av)
on the Jewish calendar.
Tishah b'Av
is a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the first and second temples; once again, remember a Jewish day begins and ends at sunset.

The following day, Christopher Columbus and his expedition set sail out of the harbor near Seville, past the ships upon which Jewish exiles were embarking. His voyage of discovery was financed by money confiscated from the Jewish people.
⁹

I call to the witness stand of history the scholar Dagobert D. Runes, who recorded the brutal and godless acts of torture upon the Jews of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition by those who called themselves
Christians
.

The Spanish Inquisition was perhaps the most cynical plot in the dark history of Catholicism, aimed at expropriating the property of well-to-do Jews and converts in Spain, for the benefit of the royal court and the Church. Even dead “suspects” had their bones dug up for “trial” so estates could be confiscated from their heirs.
¹⁰

Solemn ritualistic burning of Jews and other “heretics”
at the behest of the inquisitional authorities of the Catholic Church began. “Trials” were conducted in the presence of the clergy and invariably ended in confession under torture by fire, skinning alive, bone-crushing, etc. The verdict was almost always; “burn them alive.”
¹¹

The infamous “blood libel” tale was employed by the Inquisitors to justify the torture of the Jews of Spain. The blood libel had at its root the rumor that a Christian child had been killed by Jews and his blood used to celebrate Passover.

In Avila, a Spanish town near Madrid in 1491 a child from “La Guardia,” a village that never existed was allegedly found dead. A Jewish shoemaker, his brother and father were accused by the Church of having killed the child (later canonized) and drinking its blood for Passover. The accused admitted, under torture, all points of the indictment. Following their burning, all Jews in this little town were murdered and their homes sacked. The Catholic clergy appropriated the synagogue for a church.
¹²

In the town of Seville, Fernando Martinez, who was archdeacon of the town, mobilized the people in a massacre against the Jewish quarter. A total of four thousand Jews were
killed, and the townspeople forced the remainder to enroll in their so-called
religion of love
! These church-sponsored pogroms spread throughout Spain. Runes writes, “Synagogues were converted, together with pitifully few Jewish survivors, to the ‘Truth Faith.' In some ghettos, not a single Jew survived, and the local Christians had their new ‘House of God' to themselves.”
¹³

Elinor and Robert Slater write about a long night of anti-Semitism in their book,
Great Moments in Jewish History
:

Any Jew who observed Jewish customs, even the “wearing of clean clothes on the Jewish Sabbath,” became suspect and were brought before the Inquisitors for trial. Some were fined; others suffered confiscation of property and torture. The rack was used not only to extract confessions from the accused but to force them to inform against others. Many of the accused were put to death in theatrical executions staged in public squares of Spanish towns. An execution of this type, usually by fire was known as auto-da-fe, or act of faith.
¹⁴

The Jewish community in Spain tried desperately to have the Edict of Expulsion repealed. A delegation consisting of Abraham Senior and Isaac Abravanel obtained an audience with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Senior, the Chief Rabbi of Castile, was, in effect, the leader of Spanish Jewry.
Isaac Abravanel, a scholar and philosopher, was the financial adviser whose skill had enabled Spain to conquer Granada.

They appealed to the king and queen for mercy, and to strengthen their case they offered a substantial payment in exchange for revocation of the decree. According to one version of this meeting, the delegation placed the bag of money on the table.

Moved both by the power of their arguments and by the sight of the gold, Ferdinand and Isabella hesitated. “Just then, the Grand Inquisitor, Thomas de Torquemada, entered the room. He approached the table, set the cross he held in his hand near the bag of gold, and said, pointing to the figure of Jesus on the cross, ‘Here He is, sell Him!' The royal couple's doubts vanished. They rejected the delegation's pleas and ordered the Jews to prepare for departure.”
¹⁵

Lest we believe that anti-Semitism was exclusive to the Roman church, let me direct you to Martin Luther (1483–1586), the primary leader of the Protestant Reformation.

Having been disillusioned by the corruption of the Roman church, Luther turned to Scripture for solace. He discovered that salvation comes through faith in Christ and not through Rome. After being excommunicated by the Church and marked as a “convicted heretic” for his vocal and written criticisms of its doctrines, Luther went into hiding where he translated the New Testament into German, giving the “common people” the opportunity to benefit from its truths.

Luther initially was a friend of the Jews, writing that “treating the Jews in an unfriendly way was unchristian.” He truly believed that his revelation of salvation through grace would appeal to the Jewish people. However, when his efforts to convert them failed, Luther became angry and vindictive. He subsequently wrote a pamphlet,
Against the Jews and Their Lies
.

Luther declared the Jews as “public enemies” and beseeched that the Church and civil leaders take action against the Jewish people. Among his evil recommendations: (1) burn synagogues and Jewish schools, (2) raze and destroy Jewish homes, (3) take their prayer books and Talmudic writings, (4) forbid Rabbis to teach, (5) take their silver and gold, (6) make them work for their keep.

Martin Luther's
Against the Jews and Their Lies
was a blueprint for “Kristallnacht,” so much so that in honor of Luther's works, the first synagogues were burned on his birthday. Many believe Hitler's “Final Solution” was inspired by Luther's written works, which embodied his vile hatred against the Jewish people.

Why were the Jewish people segregated, tortured, killed, and banished?

For one reason and one reason only: they were a people who would not convert from their belief in the One God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember, as I said in
chapter 1
, it may have been called
Christianity
for hundreds of years, but the acts of the Inquisition had
nothing
to do with
Christianity
.
They had nothing to do with the love of God. They were
not
connected to our Savior and Lord. These villainous acts were nothing more than religious tyranny. They were the acts of pious church leaders whose souls had been poisoned with the evil seed of anti-Semitism. The Inquisition should never be labeled as one that was sanctioned by the message of Jesus Christ. Never!

God caused Christopher Columbus to discover the “new world,” which would eventually become America, a refuge to the Jewish people and all who were oppressed by tyrants and religious dictators around the world.

God had promised Abraham centuries before in Genesis 12:3,

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God has blessed America because we opened our arms to the seed of Abraham who have blessed the world beyond measure. I believe the day America turns its back on Israel and the Jewish people will be the exact day in history when God Almighty lifts His hand of blessing from America. The policies of our present government are putting daylight between
Washington and Israel. Beware, America! God is watching! His honor and integrity rest upon His supernatural defense of Israel.

Israel is the only nation in the history of the world created by a sovereign act of God. God, the Creator of heaven and earth, entered into a real estate covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the land of Israel would be theirs forever (Genesis 13:14–15; 17:7–8). Israel must never be separated from this ancient Bible covenant.

God continued His proclamation concerning Abraham and the Jewish people, saying, “I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3). The era of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's reign in Spain before the expulsion of the Jews is recorded in history as the Spanish Golden Age. The prosperity of Spain plummeted after the Jews were expelled and has never recovered.

Ever since the Edict of Expulsion, Spain has been ruled by dictators and despots, and today is facing national bankruptcy. In the twenty-first century, Spain is controlled by radical Islamists who blow up their trains and plot the death of anyone who dares to resist them.
¹⁶
The irony cannot be ignored—the Jews who were expelled from Spain were a people who loved life. The radical Islamists love death. Spain is experiencing the curse of Genesis 12:3!

God continues His proclamation to Abraham, stating, “And in you [the Jewish people] all the families of the earth
shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Every person reading this book has been blessed by the contributions that the Jewish people have given to the world. As we have stated, the Jewish people have given us the Bible, the patriarchs, the first family of Christianity, and the apostles. Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism. That's why our faith is referred as the
Judeo-Christian faith
. Our roots are found in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Spanish Inquisition was a time of tears and tribulation that would end in triumph for the Jewish people as God brought them to America's harbor of protection.

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 was a world-changing moment. The mantle of prosperity was lifted from Spain and placed upon the shoulders of an infant nation that would become the United States of America. God Almighty used the Four Blood Moons of 1493–94 as a
heavenly billboard
to mankind.