The Crusades, pogroms, the Inquisition, blood libels, expulsions, and the Holocaust — so much Jewish suffering has occurred under banners displaying the cross, in Jesus’s name, or by individuals identifying as “Christians.” How can such horrors possibly square with Yeshua? They don’t. These acts were not obedience to Yeshua but violations of his teaching, committed by people who used God’s name as a cover for their own hatred and power. That, in essence, is what it means to take God’s name in vain: to stamp his holy Name onto something he never commanded and deeply opposes.

Think about how we evaluate blame when religious figures behave wickedly. Recent headlines have exposed pastors, priests and rabbis who abused, exploited, or incited — men whose deeds bring shame on the very Scriptures they profess to guard. No thoughtful person concludes that Abraham or Moses taught them to do evil, or that the Torah endorses their crimes. In exactly the same way, violence “in the name of Jesus” indicts the perpetrators, not Yeshua. Their deeds contradict everything Christ taught and lived.

Illiteracy and Ignorance in Ages Past

For most of history, ordinary people had little or no access to the Scriptures. There were no printing presses for over a millennium, no mass-produced Bibles in the languages people spoke, and literacy was rare. So “Christians” in many places absorbed whatever their clergy told them — sometimes beautiful, biblical truth; too often, poisonous traditions, ethnic resentments, and political propaganda. In parts of medieval and early-modern Europe, churchmen cultivated anti-Jewish myths and sanctioned violence. They took God’s name in vain, baptizing their own malice with religious words.

Yeshua foresaw that people would hurt others “for my name’s sake,” and even predicted suffering for his Jewish followers: “They will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). He was not endorsing persecution; he was warning that counterfeit followers would commit it — and that his true disciples would often be its victims.

What the New Testament Actually Teaches

Set aside hearsay and read the New Testament itself. The moral core is crystal clear:

Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

(Matthew 5:39, 44–45)

Repay no one evil for evil… If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

(Romans 12:17–21)

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

(Galatians 5:22–26)

Love is patient and kind… It does not insist on its own way… Love never ends.

(1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness… Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer… By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.

(1 John 2:9–11; 3:14–16)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God… Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

(1 John 4:7–8)

Christ also taught, “By their fruits you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16) and, when one of his disciples drew a sword, “Put your sword back into its place” (Matthew 26:52). Measured against those standards, crusaders hacking their way across Europe and the Levant, inquisitors torturing confessions, or mobs inventing blood libels were not following Yeshua; they were defying him. They were following a false Jesus.

And this isn’t merely theory. Yeshua and his earliest followers — all Jews — suffered rather than retaliate. They were flogged, imprisoned, stoned, crucified, and beheaded because they insisted that God’s love reaches Jew and Gentile alike. They preached repentance and forgiveness; they did not raise militias.

When God Redeems Human Evil

The Hebrew Scriptures are honest about a hard reality: God can redeem human wickedness to accomplish his purposes without ever approving the wickedness itself. Joseph told the brothers who sold him, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Time and again God warned Israel that if they abandoned his ways, he would “hide [his] face,” remove protection, and allow hostile nations to discipline them (Deuteronomy 28; 31:16–18). “You only have I known,” says Amos, “therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Moses put it starkly: “They have made me jealous with what is no god… so I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:21).

Those texts are not excuses for persecutors; God judges the nations for their cruelty (see the prophets’ oracles against Assyria, Babylon, Edom). But they do explain how, when Israel resists God’s call — above all, if Israel rejects the One sent in God’s name — the result can be “desolation” and “many evils and troubles,” even as God remains faithful to his covenant. After all, when Christ stood in Jerusalem, he wept and cried:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children… and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

(Matthew 23:37-39)

Some in the crowd before Pilate shouted, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). They spoke recklessly in the heat of a manipulated spectacle. That rash cry does not justify punishment of Jews by Gentiles; it condemns the mob mentality that day. Everyone involved in the betrayals, travesties of justice, and violence — ancient and modern — will answer to God. Yet Scripture’s warnings about covenant unfaithfulness invite sober, communal self-examination: if Yeshua truly is Israel’s Messiah, what are the consequences of rejecting him? Blessing — or curse?

Do Not Confuse the Counterfeit With the Real

It is right to name the crimes done “in Jesus’ name” for what they are: blasphemies against God and assaults on his first-chosen people. It is right to mourn and to demand repentance wherever the church has been complicit. But do not mistake those atrocities for the way of Yeshua. Judge the tree by its fruit. Where his Spirit rules, you find love, reconciliation, protection of the vulnerable, and costly solidarity with Israel. In fact, alongside the villains of history stand millions of Christians — “righteous among the nations” — who have loved the Jewish people, sheltered them, prayed for them, and helped shoulder the rebirth of a homeland. Their quiet fidelity reflects the Jesus of the New Testament far more than crusader banners ever did (Not every aspect of the Crusades was negative, but it certainly felt entirely disastrous to Jews, especially during events like when crusaders burned a synagogue with many Jews trapped inside.).

The Meaning of Taking God’s Name in Vain

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) At its core, this commandment forbids using God as a prop for our own agendas — declaring “Thus says the Lord” where the Lord has not spoken, or baptizing hatred with holy words. Pogroms “in the name of Jesus” were violations of that commandment. So was every sermon that stoked contempt for Jews. The Name is holy. To attach it to evil is to profane it.

Conclusion

If you’ve only known Jesus through the lens of the Inquisition or the Crusades, you have been shown a forgery. The remedy is not to excuse history but to go back to the sources. Read the Gospels. Weigh his words. Measure those who claim his name by his standard: love of God and neighbor; mercy; humility; fidelity to the Scriptures of Israel; a life laid down rather than taken. And remember that Yeshua did not found a Gentile religion against Israel. He is Israel’s Messiah who extends Abraham’s blessing “to all the families of the earth” — and never lets go of the people to whom the promises were first given.

When violent men commit crimes “in his name,” they do not represent him; they deny him. When anyone, Jew or Gentile, turns to the Messiah who loved his enemies and gave himself for them, they honor the Name rather than taking it in vain.

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