04 / Forced Conversions and the Spanish Inquisition

All American children of my generation learned the poem that begins, 

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…”

Unfortunately for Spanish Jews, that is not all that happened in 1492. The Spanish monarchy issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering all Jews to convert to Christianity or leave the kingdom. For centuries, Jewish communities had lived in Spain under varying degrees of tolerance and restriction. That fragile coexistence now came to an abrupt end. Tens of thousands of Jews chose exile. Many others converted—not out of conviction, but out of fear; not wanting to make the treacherous trek to a foreign country and a strange new life.

These converts were known as conversos or New Christians. But conversion did not bring safety.

Instead, “baptized Jews” were often derisively labeled Marranos¹—a slur commonly understood to mean “pigs.” The term itself exposes the depth of contempt Jewish converts faced from other “Christians.” Even after baptism, Jewish converts were not regarded as fully Christian, but as tainted, suspect, and morally unclean. Conversion did not erase Jewish identity; it merely placed converts under constant scrutiny, as we will read below. The religious police were always checking to make sure there was no return to Judaism. 

Back to the Future 

When I became a believer in 1983, Gentile believers in my community rejoiced that a Jew—someone of the physical seed of Abraham—had come to the Jewish Messiah. They did not idolize me or place me on a pedestal (I was just a teenage kid). Rather, they glorified God, believing they were witnessing the fulfillment of His promises—promises like Ezekiel 36:25 and Jeremiah 31:31–33—as Jewish people were being grafted back into the Romans 11 Olive Tree.

Today, that spirit feels increasingly rare. Books like The Israel Delusion, and the theology surrounding them, are not merely critiquing Christian Zionism; they are shaping Christian attitudes toward Jewish people themselves, and not for the better. Old antisemitic tropes are being repackaged as modern conspiracy theories, casting Jews as secretly orchestrating evil or acting with hidden, sinister intent.

To be clear, by 1492, Christianity had become far more an identity than a faith in many countries. The people behind the Inquisition no more resembled New Testament Christianity than Monopoly money represents real currency. And for some today—particularly on the far-right fringes—“Christianity” functions less as allegiance to Jesus and more as a marker of white European cultural identity, despite the fact that Jesus was neither white nor European.

The Targets: Not Jews, But Converted Jews 

The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478 under Ferdinand and Isabella, was not primarily aimed at Jews openly practicing Judaism. It targeted baptized Jewish “converts” suspected of secretly living as Jews. The logic was chilling: once baptized, any return to Jewish practice was no longer merely religious difference—it was apostasy, a crime worthy of death! 

Under the leadership of Tomás de Torquemada², the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain, this system became centralized and bureaucratic—and absolutely ruthless. A Dominican friar appointed in 1483, Torquemada oversaw thousands of investigations, imprisonments, tortures, and executions. Surveillance became routine as Torquemada employed a system of informing that created a culture of fear and suspicion. 

🟠 Anyone could accuse anyone

🟠 Accusers were never revealed

🟠 False accusations were common

🟠 Personal grudges, debt, envy, or fear often motivated reports

“Faith” was enforced not through persuasion, but through terror. Daily life itself became evidence against you, as friend or foe, distant relative or even your child, might report you.

Returning to the “Vomit of Judaism”

What counted as “Judaizing”?—the term used for a baptized Jew doing anything “Jewish”:

🟠 Lighting candles on Friday evening

🟠 Resting on Saturday

🟠 Refusing pork

🟠 Washing hands before meals

🟠 Changing clothes before the Sabbath

🟠 Fasting on Jewish holy days

Practices that had defined Jewish life for centuries were now treated as proof of treason against Christianity—if performed by converts.

Accused Marranos were arrested without warning and imprisoned indefinitely. There was no due process. The accused would have no idea who turned them in. Interrogations relied heavily on torture: the rack, the strappado, and water torture were routinely employed. Many confessed simply to end the pain—then were forced to name others.

Public executions followed in autos-da-fé³, ritualized spectacles held in city squares. Victims were paraded in humiliating garments, sermons were preached, and sentences pronounced. Some were “reconciled” to the Church. Others were burned alive. Yes, Jewish believers were burned alive doing things that James, Peter and John, as well as Paul, did as a way of life as Jewish believers in Jesus (See Acts 15, 21:20-25, Rom 3:1-4).

This was not mob violence. It was legalized by the government and theologically justified by the Church.

Jewish “converts” who were caught were given the opportunity to repent. This was often accompanied with a public confession comparing Judaism to witchcraft or vomit. However, repentance did not restore freedom; it imposed lifelong punishment, surveillance, and humiliation—and failure or relapse meant death. Thousands of Jews were murdered by the Church in the Inquisition.⁴ 

Even sincere converts were never fully accepted. “Purity of blood” (limpieza de sangre) laws ensured that Jewish ancestry—no matter how distant—barred families from professions, universities, guilds, and Church offices. Baptism could not erase Jewish lineage in a society obsessed with inherited suspicion.

How the Inquisition Changed My Trajectory  

The result was a climate of fear that reshaped Jewish history. Jews fled Spain in massive numbers, seeking refuge where they could. Many settled in Poland, which for a time became a center of Jewish life and learning. Others fled to North Africa, particularly Morocco, carrying with them Spanish language, customs, and memory.

This history is not abstract for me. My own family traces its Jewish roots to Poland, while my wife Elana’s family descends from Jews who fled Spain for Morocco. Her mother speaks Spanish, though she grew up in Morocco. Like countless Jewish families, our story reflects forced migration born not of choice, but of survival.

Conclusion  

The Spanish Inquisition reveals a tragic truth: forced conversion does not produce faith—it produces fear, secrecy, and violence. When Christianity fuses with state power, sacraments become tools of control, theology becomes a weapon, and suspicion becomes a virtue. Shockingly, I have heard pastors in the United States call for versions of this type of society today.

History offers a sobering verdict. Theocracies within Christian history have been attempted repeatedly, and they have never produced a genuinely Christian nation. Instead, they have yielded deeply flawed societies in which the Church ceased to proclaim the Gospel and instead functioned as a sponsor of coercion and terror. This is why Paul presents governing authority in Romans 13 as distinct from the Church’s mission.

Bearing the sword belongs to the state, bearing witness belongs to the people of God. 

This was never the way of Jesus. While He reserved His harshest criticism for the religious hypocrites, he solemnly wept over their condition and prophesied they would one day embrace Him as Messiah. 

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41).

“For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Matt 23:39). (In Hebrew, that is a phrase of welcoming.) 

The New Testament presents faith in Yeshua as something to be proclaimed through witness and persuasion, not wielded as a political tool against vulnerable minorities. Jesus and the apostles invited, they did not coerce; they reasoned, as opposed to terrorizing; they suffered, they didn’t surveil. 

The Inquisition did not protect or expand Christianity. It disfigured it and turned it into a blunt instrument of fear, control, and intimidation. 

This story is not told to assign guilt across generations of Christians any more than every Jewish person is responsible for the actions of a few leaders and a genned-up crowd 2,000 years ago (Reminder: the vast majority of the first century Jews loved Yeshua!). It is told because the ideas behind it are resurfacing today: the belief that faith can be enforced, that conformity equals righteousness, and that minorities must be monitored by a Christian majority “for the good of society.” Whether believers make up and majority or a minority in a nation, our mandate is the same: Love God and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37-40) and share the good news of Yeshua, because we love God and our neighbor (Mark 16:15).

[1] Oxford Reference, s.v. “Marrano,” accessed January 13, 2026, https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100135869

[2] Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. “Tomás de Torquemada,” accessed January 13, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tomas-de-Torquemada 

 [3] Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. “auto-da-fé,” accessed January 13, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/auto-da-fe.

[4] Spanish Inquisition, Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed January 13, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition, historians estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed by the Spanish Inquisition, many of whom were conversos and other accused heretics.