Satan's Policy of Anti-Semitism; Rev. 12:3-4
The topic in this chapter focuses on the doctrine related to Satan's antagonism and hostility to Israel as Israel because of the way God has chosen to use Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in His plan for human history. Revelation 12:3 NASB "Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads {were} seven diadems.
Revelation 12:4 NASB "And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child." Historically, some time in eternity past, Satan influenced one third of the angels to follow him. He threw them to the earth, so this is his command to the fallen angels to go down to planet earth and influence human history. Then in the second part of the verse we see his role in relationship to the woman, Israel. His mission up to the cross was to prevent God from providing salvation, and so there were satanic attacks against Israel all the way through the Old Testament.
Revelation 12:5 NASB "And she gave birth to a son, a male {child,} who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron [His future destiny]; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne [the ascension]."
If we understand anti-Semitism it gives us a tremendous ability to understand the trends in politics today. Anti-Semitism is basically opposition to, prejudice against, or intolerance of the Jewish people because they are Jewish. The term "semite" derives from Shem who was one of Noah's three sons. Shem was the father of various people groups, including the Akadians, the Elimites, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Arabs (usually descendants partially from Abraham through Ishmael, or down through Esau, but also there were other Arab groups that came out from cousins of Abraham), Syrians, Lydians, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Midianites, some Armenians and Ethiopians as well as Jews. So the term "semite" technically covers a wide range of Middle Eastern people. So technically the term refers to both Arabs and Jews but the term has been narrowed and is used simply to refer to those who are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Since World War II and the holocaust anti-Semitism has been somewhat politically incorrect in the West and looked down upon in some sense, and so many people have cloaked and camouflaged their anti-Semitism in a new anti-Zionism. This is called the new anti-Semitism and it is rooted in past anti-Semitism and it targets not just the Jews as individuals but Israel as a nation because now and since 1948 the Jews have returned to the land. Ultimately it boils down today as to whether or not they have the right to protect themselves as a nation. If they are criticized for carrying out what any other nation would do in terms of national territorial self-defense and are not treated the same way as any other nation then that becomes a very subtle and horrible form of anti-Semitism; it is basically saying they are not allowed to defend themselves. It is buying into the horrible lies and propaganda of Islam and the lie that there is such a thing as the Palestinian people and the lie that the "Palestinians" have a right to the nation; they really don't, there is no ethnic group known as Palestinians.
It is important to understand the connection between Nazism and the modern terrorist activities of the radical Muslims in the Middle East. That connect comes through a man who was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Mohammed Effendi al-Husseini. He was a gangster and a thug who organized the Arabs and generated the first terrorism after the end of World War I in order to react against the British who were trying to promote the Balfour Declaration. In 1933 he went to Berlin to sit down with Hitler and fill him with anti-Semitic ideas coming out of Islam and there was this relationship that developed. He raised a couple of SS divisions that were Muslims in the Balkans during World War II. After the end of that war a large number of Nazi war criminals were able to escape into Syria and Saudi Arabia and Egypt because they were welcomed by the Arabs.
Some go to the other extreme and say that any decision that Israel makes we ought to support. That is not true. Just because they are Israel doesn't mean they are right. Zionism is the belief that the Jews have a right to their national homeland. Christian Zionism is the belief that Christians had to help Jews achieve a national homeland and to secure that for their people. At its core Zionism is the belief that they have a right to have a nation, and like any other nation they have the right to defend themselves and to protect their borders and their national integrity. Supporting Israel doesn't mean supporting everything they do, it means supporting them in their mission as a nation to protect their borders and to secure their own safety.
In a 1998 fatwah there was issued a statement: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies, civilian and military, is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the Al Aqsa mosque (on the Temple Mount) and the holy mosque (the Ka'aba) in Mecca from their grip—a reaction to the fact that there had been so many Americans in Saudi Arabia during the 1st Gulf War.
Illustrations