Hi all,
Did you know antisemitism and hatred for Israel will continue in the Millennium? True. This is a ffollow-upseries to the previous oone n what to believe about Israel, specifically focused on the end of the age and the return of Jesus.
In Luke 4: 17-21, Jesus was handed the book of Isaiah and read a passage about Himself in 61: 1-2:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God;
But Jesus didn’t read that whole sentence. He stopped with: ‘To preach the acceptable year of the Lord’. The rest says: “And the day of vengeance of our God.”
Jesus did this because His first appearance was about the cross, the ‘acceptable year of the Lord’. He could not tell them there would be a 2,000 year gap for Gentiles to be given a chance for salvation before ‘the day of vengeance’. The theology of the day taught the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God was to happen all at once. They believed Messiah was coming to subdue the Romans and rule the world from Jerusalem. As a people on the whole, they have never accepted the suffering Messiah who first brought the acceptable year of the Lord. They continue to wait for the conquering Messiah.
That means all that is happening in the world today is setting the stage for ‘the day of vengeance of our God’. The nations will be drawn to battle against Israel, culminating in the battle of Armageddon. For this to happen, multiple nations must collectively hate Israel and the Jewish people. The Revelation 11: 18 says ‘the nations were angry’. At some point that anger and hatred will cause the nations to gather together to destroy the nation. At the moment all appears lost, Jesus and we saints* return from the realm of the Spirit to physically enter this realm to rescue the nation and set up Jesus’ kingship over the planet. *The Revelation 19: 7-9, 13-14. Note white robes given to attendees of the Marriage Supper AND those returning with Jesus are wearing them.
Because we know the end will be the nations angry and hating Israel, aligning to war against it, we can work backwards to understand the roots of that hatred finds its completion in the motivation to exterminate the nation and people.
Israel will see the ‘day of vengeance of our God’, which we call the Battle of Armageddon and the ‘2nd coming of Christ’.
At Armageddon as the nations attack, Israel will realize the One bringing the ‘day of vengeance of our God’ is also the One who first brought ‘the acceptable year of the Lord’. “Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (to the kingdom), then all Israel will be saved.” “And one will say to Him, ‘What are these wounds in your hands?’ And He will answer: ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'” Romans 11: 26, Zechariah 13: 6
Survivors of Armageddon: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” Zechariah 14: 16
We would think with Jesus ruling as King over the earth, every nation, every person would accept Him as Lord and King. But that isn’t what scripture says.
Antisemitism will not stop with Jesus ruling as King over the earth:
“If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. (For instance) If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain….This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to worship the King and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.” Zechariah 14: 17-20
Many Christians do not realize most people survive the battle that will take place in Israel at the return of the Lord. Many more don’t realize life goes on for planet earth. Yes there will be big changes, but life will go on, the nations will go on. So it is even more of a revelation that some nations will not accept Jesus as their King, refusing to worship Him at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Satan will be bound, but many people still won’t be born again, so human sinfulness and human nature will still be an issue. Jesus is King in Jerusalem, David will be Israel’s king*. And all the nations of the earth will be expected to worship Jesus in an annual (Jewish) feast of Tabernacles. But some nations will refuse to worship the King. *Jeremiah 30: 9, Ezekiel 34: 23-24, 37: 24-25, Hosea 3: 5
Sheep nations, goat nations
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” Matthew 25: 31-34
These are the people we will rule over, judging disputes, enforcing righteousness: “Don’t you know we will judge (in administration over) angels? Don’t you know we will judge (in administration over) the world?”* We will have glorified bodies, the gifts of the Spirit, and the power of God to rule more wisely than Solomon ever could, but there will still be goat nations and sheep nations. Antisemitism isn’t going away. *I Corinthians 6: 2-3; Hebrews 2: 5, The Revelation 20: 4, 6.
When considering the anti-Israel culture rising, we Christians need to understand that hatred of the Jewish people and hatred for Christians is the same spirit. While visiting Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich, Germany, when I was a teenage, I was stunned to read a display that said while there were some 6 million Jewish people murdered in the camps, there were also another 5 million Christians (non-Jewish) killed. If they hate Christ Jesus they will hate those who call themselves by His name.
Next week the spirit of antichrist and what it looks like as it creeps into churches and church culture.
Until then, Blessings,
John Fenn
