Antisemitism: A War Waged Against God
By Desmond Allen, PhD, ThM, MDiv
Antisemitism is the oldest form of racism, and like all racism, it stems from an evil heart. But Antisemitism is a unique form of racism, for it is endemic throughout the world, active in nearly every culture on earth. Beyond merely stemming from the evil heart of man, antisemitism is fueled by Satan himself because, as the Lord told Moses, the Israelites are God’s chosen people, “You are a holy people unto Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth (De 7:6). To them the oracles of God were entrusted, and through them, Jesus the Messiah is born (De 7:6; Ro 3:2; Isa 9:6; Mt 1:18-25). Yet, even though the written word of God is complete, and the Messiah has been born and has sacrificed himself for man’s redemption, Satan is still at work against the Jews, for they are still an integral part of God’s plan for the ages. For this reason, Satan not only hates the Jews himself, but he has influenced the nations of the world to hate them as well, although they do so for various contrived reasons while being virtually ignorant of Satan’s agenda and his influence over them.
At the same time, like the rest of humanity, the Jews are sinners and prone to wandering from the commandments of the Lord. Nevertheless, God, having made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has chosen the Israelites for himself; they are his people, and he loves them, and he chastens those whom he loves. As such, many times in many generations, over some 4,000 years, the Lord has used the world’s hatred of the Jews to reprimand them for their unfaithfulness and backsliding ways, and to encourage their return to his fellowship. In this way, God has even used their persecution to their spiritual benefit; thereby working all things to the good for those whom he has chosen (Ro 8:28). But this does not excuse the world’s untoward hatred of the Jews for which they shall certainly suffer. As the Lord told Abraham concerning this great nation composed of his descendants, “I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you; and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Ge 12:3).
God’s Plan for Man’s Redemption
Adam’s sin plunged humanity into the darkness of sin, necessarily separating us from our holy Creator and bringing the judicial sentence of death. Soon, man’s wickedness and idolatry grew so great that God destroyed the world, saving only Noah and his family. Yet, merely a few hundred years after the great flood, nearly all of humanity had banded together, forsaking God once again to pursue their own wicked arrogance. Being exasperated with man’s wickedness for a second time, with his righteousness still demanding the just penalty of death, rather than destroying the world again, God would graciously provide for man’s redemption by entering his creation, being born of a woman and fathered by God. As the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus the Messiah, being without sin, would personally pay the price for man’s sins, and provide for their glorification with His own sacrificial death and victorious resurrection (Jn 1:1; Php 2:5-8; 1Pe 1:18-21; 1Co 2:7-7; Eph 3:5-6; 1Co 15).
To accomplish this plan, God set two procedures in motion. First, he divided the unified rebellious people into several nations by confusing their language so they could no longer understand each other, and he scattered them throughout the world. This began the Times of the Nations, during which God has allowed mankind to pursue their own arrogant philosophies and governance, largely leaving them to their own devices and leadership, a leadership highly influenced by Satan (Ge 11; Lu 21:24; 2Co 4:4; Jn 14:30; Eph 6:12). During this time, as wickedness reigns, for his own pleasure and purpose and glorification, God provides faith and forgiveness to certain individuals and calls them to his fellowship; thereby highlighting both his righteousness and his mercy (Jn 6:44; Ro 9).
Secondly, after dividing the nations, God made a covenant with Abraham, who had remained faithful to the Lord. He commanded Abraham to separate himself from his homeland and travel to the Land of Canaan. Through Abraham’s descendants, the Messiah would be born to provide for man’s redemption. The covenant, which passed through Isaac and Jacob (later renamed Israel), also included giving the land of Canaan to the Messiah, and making a great nation of Israel’s descendants (Ga 3:16; Ac 13:23; Ge 12:1-3; 15; 17:1-15; 22:1-19; Ps 105:6).
Satan’s War Against God
From the time of God’s covenant with these patriarchs till this present day, Satan has hated the Israelites and has continually attempted to thwart God’s purpose and redemptive plan for humanity. So it is that Antisemitism is truly a war waged against God.
Satan’s first attempt to disrupt God’s plan happened when he influenced King Abimelech to separate Sarah from Abraham, for she was Abraham’s co-partner and already pregnant with Isaac, the son of the covenant. Years later, while Jacob and his family were living in Shechem, the pagan Hivites attempted to comingle with the young Israelites, which would have corrupted God’s chosen people. Later, due to a severe famine in Canaan, Jacob and his family relocated to Egypt, where they were welcomed with open arms. But a few hundred years later, the Egyptians had grown frightened of the Israelites and enslaved them in order to keep them under control. Then, lest the Israelites rebel against them, the Pharaoh ordered the execution of all their male infants.
Eventually, God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, and Joshua to lead them back into Canaan. Here, once again, Satan influenced the surrounding pagan nations to infiltrate and comingle with the Israelites. At the same time, these nations fought vigorously against them, attempting to exterminate them altogether.
Israel’s Punishment for Unfaithfulness
While the pagans were not successful in eliminating the Israelites, they did successfully corrupt them with their paganism, which the Israelites battled for some 800 years throughout the times of the judges and the kings. During the time of the kings, after King Solomon, the Israelites split into two kingdoms: the ten northern tribes called Israel, and the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with some from the tribes of Simeon and Levi, called the kingdom of Judah, or Jews. Eventually, God punished the northern kingdom of Israel for their corruption by allowing the Assyrians to take thousands of elite captives and to infiltrate the remaining population with pagan foreigners who then came to mingle with Israel in the region of Samaria. Then, about 125 years later, due to their idolatry, God allowed the Babylonians to take the southern kingdom captive. At last, in Babylon, the Jews were purged of pagan idolatry. Yet, even there, Satan inspired two different plots designed to sustain their idolatrous behavior: one under King Nebuchadnezzar, and another under King Darius. When these failed, he inspired a third hateful plot under King Ahasuerus to eliminate the Jews, which also failed.
After some 70 years of captivity, the Jews returned to the Promised Land. Then, about 600 years later, the Messiah was born. In an attempt to kill him, Satan inspired King Harrod to murder all the male infants and toddlers in Bethlehem, which failed to reach the young Messiah whose parents had successfully escaped with him. Three decades later, Satan influenced the now rigidly legalistic and rebellious Jewish nation to reject their Messiah, for they desired deliverance from Roman oppression more than salvation from their sin.
Then, as Moses and the prophets predicted, God once again punished the Jews for their unfaithfulness. In 70 AD, God allowed the Roman General Titus to attack Jerusalem, kill more than a million Jews, take some 90,000 captives, and cause the rest to scatter throughout the world, where they have been hated, despised, and abused for the last two millennia.
And Yahweh shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest: but Yahweh shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of your life (De 28:64-66).
Yet I will leave a remnant, that you may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their adulterous heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am Yahweh, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them (Eze 6:8-10).
While such persecution has been the fate of the Jews for nearly two thousand years, they are still God’s chosen people whom he loves; yet, there remains one final chastisement and punishment for their unfaithfulness; and during this period, they will convert and return to the Lord, never to stray again. In the last days, God will draw them back and establish them once again in the Promised Land, where they will be hated and suffer extreme persecution at the hand of the Antichrist. It is the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Two-thirds of them will die, but God has not abandoned them, and he will remain true to his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Finally, the Jews will acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, and the one-third remnant that survives this troubled time will enter Christ’s 1,000-year kingdom, which he will establish upon his return.
For, lo, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Yahweh: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it…. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it…. Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them (Jer 30:3, 7; 32:37-39).
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it (Zec 12:2-3).
Therefore say, thus says the Lord Yahweh; Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Therefore say, thus says the Lord Yahweh; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come there, and they shall take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God (Eze 11:16-20).
For decades, the world has been witnessing these prophecies begin to be fulfilled. Since 1948, when a handful of Jews declared Israel’s independence as a sovereign state, Jews have been returning to the Promised Land; so that today, of the world’s roughly 16 million Jews, nearly 8 million currently live in Israel. And, as predicted, they are hated vehemently by the nations of the world and especially by their surrounding neighbors. The recently established nation of Israel and the hatred it receives from the world are perhaps the greatest signposts pointing to Christ’s soon return.
Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God (Eze 28:25-26).
Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God (Eze 39:25-29).
Eventually many nations (identified by their ancient names: Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, Persia, Ethiopa, Lybia, Togarmah) will band together to launch an attack against Israel, but God will protect his people, immediately destroying 5/6 of the invading armies.
Therefore, you son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn you back, and leave but the sixth part of you, and will cause you to come up from the far north, and will bring you upon the mountains of Israel: And I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the people that are with you: I will give you unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured (Eze 39:1-4).
Although the Antichrist will probably lay claim to the victory over these invaders, and likely even use this as the means to launch his career and secure the 7-year peace treaty with Israel (which marks the beginning of the tribulation), the Jews will not be fooled. When God miraculously protects them from the invaders, at last, their eyes are opened, and they come to realize that Jesus is the Messiah.
And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel…. And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So, the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God from that day and forward (Eze 39:7, 21-22).
As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am Yahweh, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares Yahweh God (Eze 20:41-44).
Israel will reject the Antichrist, and he will turn scorched earth on them, and upon anyone who rejects his tyrannical leadership (Re 13:15-17). This will occur 3 ½ years into the peace treaty, midway through the Tribulation; it marks the time of the Great Tribulation. Not only will the world suffer the tyranny of the Antichrist, but God himself, in his wrath, will unleash many troubles upon the world. Although, like the Jews, most of the Gentile population will die, there will also be many conversions among them, and those converts who survive will enter Christ’s kingdom with the surviving converted Jews.
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them as gold is tested: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, they are my people: and they shall say, Yahweh is my God (Zec 13:9).
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:31-34).
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zec 12:10).
Conclusion
Even after the world was horrified by the killing of 6 million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, and some 10 to 20 million plus killed by the red holocaust of communism, antisemitism in these modern times is still very much alive. Throughout the world, antisemitic rhetoric on social media, staged protests, and violent attacks against Jewish individuals and institutions are on the rise, and radical Islamic nations have vowed to exterminate them altogether. But little do they realize that they, the haters of the Jews, are warring against God and that they are the ones doomed for extermination.
The burden of the word of Yahweh concerning Israel, says Yahweh, who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it (Zec 12:2).