Synagogue of Satan
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Greetings,
The President of Iran is well known for his repeated proclamations that Israel will soon be wiped off the map, and all Jews killed or scattered to the four winds. The vast majority of his fellow Moslems around the world long for that day as well, even those in Egypt and Jordan who have signed peace covenants with Israel. In America, there remains a sizable number of Christians who love the Jewish people, and see Israel and its return as a nation in 1948 as the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. These Christians remember the chilling words of the Jewish prophets of old who said that Gentile nations used by God to punish Israel for their rebellion will find themselves destroyed because of their own pride and evil lusts against the Jews they were allowed to defeat. I count myself as one of them, and want the Moslem world to understand that God's offer of forgiveness to them remains on the table.
Islamic hatred for the Jewish people does not stand alone, as many others around the world are blaming the people of Israel for all the problems in the Middle East. You need to know the prophetic scriptures point to a time when America and its European allies will attempt to conclude the "final solution" that Hitler and today's madmen of Islam have desired for so long....the annihilation of all Jews. Does that stun or shock your senses? I hope so, for there is coming a day when the many voices of those Christians now claiming such love and support of Israel will dwindle to just a few, if any, as a great apostasy sweeps through Christendom in America, declaring that Israel and the Jews are the Synagogue of Satan, twisting the meaning of scriptures to justify scattering the Jews of Israel throughout the nations, and killing those who refuse to obey them. I am sad to say this, but many who now support Israel will be seduced into thinking the Jews are America's greatest enemy. This article will hopefully awaken your heart and mind, and open your eyes to what is now happening among some professing Christians in America.
Please read John's explicit reference in the Revelation to the "Synagogue of Satan" that mingled among the seven churches of Christendom in the first century, and ask God to show you the truth about Israel and the Jewish people.
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Revelation 2:8-11
(8) And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; (9) I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the "Synagogue of Satan". (10) Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (11) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Revelation 3:7-13
(7) And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (8) I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (9) Behold, I will make them of the "Synagogue of Satan", which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. (10) Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (11) Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. (12) Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (13) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
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Who were these people then and do they exist today? Because the phrase uses the word "synagogue" some anti-Semitic hate-filled readers of the scriptures automatically assume the Lord was referring to his chosen people, the Jews, the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They then conclude these must be Jews who reject the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, thereby casting their lot with the Lord's enemy, Satan and his fallen angels. And since they are of Satan they must be despised, defeated, and destroyed. This kind of thinking helped false Gentile Christians in past generations to violently turn against those Jews who continue to resist the Lord Jesus as their Savior and Lord, with Hitler being the most obvious example.
This despising of the Jews is at the root in many false Christians who hold to "replacement" theology, which teaches that all the promises given to Abraham and his seed no longer applied to the Jews when Jesus was crucified by them, so the promises were subsequently given and transferred to the Gentile Christians of the Roman Empire. You would be surprised at how many Christian colonists from Europe (Roman Empire) who founded America considered themselves to be the "New Israel". How many of their descendants still think that way today? As a side note, there are various Gentile religious groups who claim to be the descendants of the so-called ten lost tribes of Israel. Even the Mormons apparently think native American Indians are descendants of one of these lost Jewish tribes. There also exists today many English speaking Gentile Christians living in England and America who consider themselves to be these lost Jews. They are called "British Israelites" and like their replacement cousins, need to be called to repentance.
As I understand the New Testament scriptures concerning the Jews, there does exist "natural" Jews and "spiritual" Jews. The spiritual ones are those people, both Jew and Gentile, who have confessed and repented of their sin through Godly sorrow and embrace the person of Jesus Christ, his shed atoning blood, his glorious resurrection, and his pre-millennial second coming. The inspired writings of Paul in Ephesians 2:11-22, make it clear that spiritual Jews are also called the body of Christ on Earth. We are his ambassadors of the coming Kingdom of Heaven, calling new believers out of the darkened and deceived Kingdoms of Man before the wrath and judgment of God is poured out upon a war-torn world that is ruled and manipulated by Satan and his fallen angels.
The natural Jews were and are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who received the eternal promises from God. John's letters to the seven churches at the end of the first century clearly reveal that some people were calling themselves "Jews" who were not telling the truth. So the vital question is, were these people natural Jews falsely claiming to be Christians or Gentile Christians claiming to be the true Jews? Some Bible teachers say they were natural Jews (like the false Judaism Paul confronted regularly) claiming to be Christians, but had not truly been born again because they mixed faith in Jesus with their own works to obtain salvation, thus they were liars. I think there is more to it than that, for why would John proclaim they were not Jews at all and call them liars, if they were natural Jews trying to add their "works for salvation" delusion to some faith in Jesus as the Messiah? They were still natural Jews weren't they? They weren't lying about that, were they? It doesn't make sense, for Jesus, and later Paul and other apostles, considered natural Jews that rejected or perverted the gospel to still be Jews who were like branches cut off from their olive tree because of unbelief.
Because of that, and also knowing that by this time in the young history of Christendom there had already arisen among the Gentile Christians false teachers who taught that God's promise of land to the natural Jews was finished; I think John was referring to Gentiles (in the likeness of today's replacement movement) who claimed to be the new Israel, who are neither spiritual nor natural Jews, and definitely not saved or born again. While there might have been some natural Jews who twisted the gospel of Jesus Christ to fit their false theology that were mingling among the seven churches, I think the Synagogue of Satan phrase is our Lord's reference to deluded Christian Gentiles who despised the Jews and rejoiced that they were scattered to the four winds by the Roman Empire for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.
Remember that when John was writing the Revelation at the close of the first century there was no Israel, for the occupied nation had already been destroyed and the Jews scattered by the Roman Gentiles in 70 AD, just as Jesus had prophesied, Luke 21:20-24. This was Israel's judgment and punishment because their leaders rejected the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, and sadly, Luke's prophecy will be repeated with this generation of Israeli leaders who mock and scorn their own prophets who embrace the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, Isaiah 28:14-22.
With over twenty years having transpired since the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, these false Gentile Christians had all the evidence they needed to turn against the natural Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah, and declare themselves the new Israel. They had apparently attempted to infiltrate the church in Smyrna and Philadelphia, but were exposed and called to repentance by the Spirit of God working in the Godly brethren among the congregation. However, what they had started in the first century grew wildly throughout the Roman Empire during the time of the Emperor Constantine and the rise of the Papacy in the third and fourth centuries after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, in the first century, we can see the seeds of a coming great apostasy being planted. At the same time a great awakening was taking place among the Gentiles in the Roman Empire, as the prophesied "early or former rain" of the Holy Spirit was flowing through the Jewish apostles upon the Gentiles of the Roman Empire, Hosea 6:3, Joel 2:23, Zechariah 12:10, Acts 2:15-21, James 5:7.
It was the Papacy who succeeded in removing all connections to the Jewish traditions and customs, replacing them with Christianized pagan rituals like Easter and Christmas. For these reasons, I think John was clear in his mind that the same kind of men who made up the Synagogue of Satan mingling among the seven churches would later become the Great Harlot, the Church of the Antichrist, that sits upon and guides the Gentile government of Babylon the Great (the final form of the Roman Empire) which rules the nations before the second coming of Jesus Christ, Revelation 17-18. This my friends, has been, now is, and will be a Gentile endeavor, one which will hate and persecute the Jews, even though there might be some apostate Jews joined with them who are willing collaborators to feather their own nest. Babylon the Great will consider the land of Israel to be their inheritance.
These deceived Gentiles misinterpret and take out of its context Paul's teaching in Romans that a true Jew is not one who only "outwardly" follows the law of Moses, as did the leaders of Israel when Jesus came down from Heaven to save his chosen people. Even though most of the natural Jews turned against the Lord, and later Paul, they were still Jews, and the promises to them were still in effect if they would turn from their sin nature that condemned them, as it does all of us. For in the same context in Romans, Paul refers to his Jewish "brethren" in the flesh who were not yet born again.
Moreover, Jesus Christ adamantly teaches throughout the scriptures that the day is coming when the scattered natural Jews will return to Israel as a sovereign nation still in unbelief, just as they were when scattered in 70 AD. This return of the nation of Israel begins the final countdown that ends with the second coming of Jesus Christ making war against all the nations and people that despise and hate the Jewish people. That countdown began in May of 1948 my dear friends, so please be warned against following these wolves dressed in sheepskin Christian suits who despise the Jews and the nation of Israel. Read Paul's letter for yourselves:
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Romans 2:28-29
(28) For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: (29) But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. Romans 9:1-5
(1) I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (2) That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (3) For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: (4) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; (5) Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Romans 11:13-25
(13) For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: (14) If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. (15) For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (16) For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. (17) And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; (18) Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. (19) Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. (20) Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear: (21) For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
(22) Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. (23) And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. (24) For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? (25) For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
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Again, I must repeat that what these misguided Gentiles were doing then is known today as "replacement" theology, a deadly error and heresy that has invaded many in Christendom. If you profess to be a Christian and find yourself siding with the news media around the world as they trumpet their despising of Israel and the Jews, remember the words you have just read.
It is true that all Jews must be born again to escape the eternal flames of the Lake of Fire, as do we Gentiles. There is no other way to inherit eternal life but through the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we do not excuse or cover up their sins because they are still God's chosen, just as we should not hide from our own sins that need to be exposed, confessed, and forgiven by the power of Jesus Christ. The Lord brought his rebellious people back into their God-given land as a nation in 1948 for one reason and one reason only....so that they will know that he is their Lord and Messiah, Ezekiel 37:13. During Daniel's coming 70th week of seven years, a great awakening will take place in Israel among the Jews that will fulfill the "latter rain" of the Holy Spirit falling upon those natural branches of Paul's olive tree. Many Gentiles will be swept into the Kingdom of Heaven because of this coming revival, Revelation 7&11.
For those readers who have yet to be saved from their sin nature remember this, the combined power of the precious blood and second coming of Jesus Christ is the "only" permanent solution to the death and destruction that men inflict upon one another to the hideous delight of Satan and his fallen angels, the masters of human manipulation. The triune God who created and loves you wants you to experience sorrow of a Godly kind that works repentance unto the salvation of your heart, mind, and body, 2 Corinthians 7:10. He will replace your genuine sorrow with his joy through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit surrounding your newly created and circumscribed heart! Then you will desire to obey the God of Israel because you love him, knowing that he first loved you and sent his Son to save you from your sin nature and the bondage of the fallen angel masters.
Please visit our website and sign the "guest book" or send an email. For more detail and information on Israel, the Jews, the great apostasy and awakening to come I encourage you to read the article “The Judgment Chronicles” posted on our web site. For details concerning my military background during the Vietnam era, please read the articles "Vietnam: The Manchus of Charlie Company", "Pacifist, Patriot, or Pilgrim" and “Moved with Compassion”. Just click on our web site link below and click on “Articles”. The radio interviews I have been part of can be listened to by clicking on this link: http://www.thebyteshow.com/JackHook.html