| WHY ISRAEL WILL EMBRACE THE ANTICHRIST |
| The following Commentary is primarily set in the time just prior to and during the Tribulation Period, viz. Jacob's Troubles [Jer. 30:7] and Daniel's Seventieth Week [Dan. 9:24-27]. Further, the text has nothing to do with the corrupt eschatological position known as, "Restoration Theology " ... belief that Israel has lost its standing with God, and its blessings and curses have reverted to the Church for the endtime. We know from scripture that Israel, religious and secular alike, will embrace the coming anti-Christ as Messiah, yet only to be greatly deceived by the man of sin who will enter-in and desecrate the 3rd Temple. |
| The tents of belief among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform sects, in postmodern Judaism, are varied and at times openly conflictural. As of recent, doctrinal disparity among several denominations in Christendom reflect competitive/antagonistic factions within, as well. Recently formed religious sects such as "Jewish Renewal" and "Reconstructionism" are not addressed here, since their postulates are even more radical than Reform and some of the Conservative viewpoints. In 1977, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the US and Canada declared that Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism are "not Jewish".(3) It is estimated that between 80 percent to 90 percent of affiliated Jews in America are members of either Reform or Conservative congregations.(ibid.) The State of Israel is still struggling with the definition(s) of "legitimate Jewry" in terms of marriage, conversion, divorce, citizenship, Diaspora etc. |
| Let us consider here a few of the doctrinal and belief differences among the three primary sects in modern-day Judaism. These differences are preeminent in understanding why Tribulation Period Israel will receive and embrace the antichrist. (See full Jewish Doctrine Table Model -- http://www.aamen.org/Home08a.html )(4) |
| View of Orthodox Conservative Reform |
| Scripture The Torah is Truth. Divine origin of Old Testament is the word of God and man. Torah is a human document persevering |
| the oral and written Torah O.T. is not inspired in the traditional sense, history, culture and legends. Valuable for |
| but an ongoing inspirational process. deriving ethical insight. |
| View of |
| Man Man is morally neutral. Can overcome Perfectibility can come through enlightenment. Man''s nature is good. Man can actualize |
| his evil bent and be perfected by his Embraces some Reform tenants, but not out his potential through education, encourage- |
| own efforts and observance of the Law. humanism. and evolution. Mankind may be God. |
| View of |
| Sin Do not believe in "original sin". We Conservatives do not believe in a sin nature. Do not believe in an original sin nature. |
| commit sin by breaking commandments Individuals sin in moral or social actions. Sin is reinterpreted as the ills of |
| of the Law. society - secular sin. |
| View of |
| Salvation Repentance, prayer andobedienceto Echo Reform view, but include the Salvation is obtained through the |
| the Law are necessary for salvation. Necessity of maintaining Jewish identity. betterment of self and society. |
| View of |
| The Law Law is the essence of Judaism.Total Adaptation to contemporary situations is The Law is evolving, dynamic, religious |
| dedication to "Halakhah" leads to is inevitable. Morality is absolute. Specific code that adapts to every age. If religious |
| View of |
| Messiah He is a personal, superhuman being, Beliefs parallel Reform tenants. Instead of belief in Messiah as a person or |
| who is not Divine. He will execute Messianic Age not a personal Messiah. divine being, they seek a Utopian age |
| judgment and right all wrongs. toward which mankind is progressing. |
| View of |
| Afterlife There will be a physical resurrection. Conservatives parallel Reform views, but No concept of personal life after death. |
| The righteous will exit with God forever. are less influenced by Eastern thought. A person lives on in the minds of others. |
| View of |
| Gay Issues Homosexuality is a Torah identified Position varies depending on congregation, Liberal on relationships and gay-marriage. |
| abomination. Rabbi, and ex-reform members. Supports same sex marriages (Rabbi). |
| According to the New Testament and the Christian church, Jesus is Divine, the Son of God, and the Messiah. In sharp contrast, Jewish belief considers Jesus was a man with some wisdom teachings. Further, in Judaism, Jesus was a Jewish man who was executed and later given divine status by the Christian church. Thus, to look to Jesus as the returning Savior/Messiah, is blasphemy. Where then should 21st C. Israel, and Jewry, look to for the coming of their long awaited Ha'Mashiach? |
| One of the most important Jewish principals of faith is the belief in one God and one God only with no partnership of any kind, and belief in Jesus as Deity, part of a Deity, Son of God, or Christ, is incompatible with Judaism. The belief that Jesus is God, part of the Trinity, the Messiah, or a prophet of God are incompatible with traditional Jewish tenets. Maimonides in his Epistle to Yemen writes that Jesus was a heretic who sought to annul the Torah.(5) |
| Thus, unless a Jew is a Messianic-Jew, Jesus is not a consideration for salvation nor deliverance. What remains is a hope for the coming of a "super ordinate" person who promises to bring peace, security, and prosperity. Christ was not accepted in His first Advent due in large part to the fact He came as a suffering servant, and not as a conquering warlord king. Israel will be profoundly disheartened by the performance of the embraced antichrist. He will be the quintessential endtime Pied Piper.(6) |
| Modern-day Israel is a secularized religious culture, permeated with stalwart quasi-religious groups, and an orthodox-Jewish minority. The longed for "Jewish" Messiah is not envisioned as a divine being, will be a human with extraordinary gifts, will displays-miracles-signs-wonders, and have an undeniable anointing. This individual will be expected to purpose his workings through government to being about peace, justice and reconciliation for all of mankind's shortcomings. Thus, we have an operative characterization of the coming antichrist's self declarations. (See Daniel and Revelation). As Israel is pressed further and further into the "corner of itself", it will reach out, to the international community, for deliverance from the oppressive and longstanding isolationism perpetrated by neighboring Arab states. Along comes a spider, so to speak, and the "man which will destroy many by the promise of peace" (Dan. 8:25) will offer them that feigned security and escape. |
| Israel's long-term over reliance on the United States for financial support, military materiel, and protection from UN sanctions will progressively diminish as a consequence of horrific events now staging in the Persian Gulf Theater. As Israel finds itself without America's unquestioned unilateral defense-pack, it will aggressively seek to formally join the global community of nations. Economic / monetary, political / governance, and military / security coalitions will form in the next few years and Israel will believe it cannot afford to sustain itself in the isolated state in which it exists today. Israel's embrace of the antichrist, save a remnant, will initially be out of a sense of necessity and angst, vs. a religious consideration. Even so, a universal religious consortium will also form and Israel will opt-in to that set of religious alliances, again out of a fear of further isolationism. |
| The antichrist will offer Israel a shield of protection which will falsely allay their fearful concerns of being overwhelmed by "having to go it alone". Israel will operate on the principle of parsimony or Occam's razor. Today Israel functions on a false premise of land for peace, an over reliance on a propped-up economic invincibility, nuclear defense deterrents, and a misguided set of propositions (hope) that a lasting peace is obtainable and sustainable with Arab / Islamic states in the region. This is not a doomsday scenario as such, rather endtime scriptural eschatology beginning to play itself out right before our very eyes. |
| The coming attack by a Persian Gulf Arab Caliphate, with Russian weaponry, will result in a God orchestrated victory for Israel. The consequence of this victory will place Israel in a most tenuous position, regionally as well as internationally, and change the calculus of the Middle East so as to allow the antichrist to exercise great sway throughout the Tribulation Period. Why then will Israel, save a remnant, embrace the antichrist, because it actually will not have a reasoned option (doctrinal) not to affiliate and submit. If Netanyahu becomes the Israeli Prime Minister, during these near coming times, we may see Israel gain some lost confidence, yet it will be short-lived as God's Providence for Israel is ushered and its fulfillment made manifest. |
| Much of the current cymbal clanging and bell ringing to save Israel from itself, and the coming outworking of God's endtime Plan, go against divinely inspired prophecy and scriptural eschatology. God Almighty will restore and reconcile Israel to Himself, in HIs good time. However, we read that God blesses those which bless Israel and brings loss upon those that deny her. We read in Zech. 12:2-3 - "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 be gathered together against it." Coming events will cause America to deny and come against Israel, irrespective of current political rhetoric, (all people of the earth) and in doing so, loose divine favor America has garnered as Israel's only "stand-up" international friend and co-protectorate. |
| If God finished the end before He began the beginning then what was, and what is, will be what is to come.(referencing Christ). The table below is a straightforward chart of prophesized events to come. The Antichrist will be a "counterfeit" of Christ ((pseudo Christos), and Israel will paradoxically receive him, "for they know not the True One". (See 1& 2). The 'spirit of the antichrist' has been operative in the world since Eden. The manifest personification of the antichrist should enter stage-center at the "Beginning of Sorrows". This commentary has purposefully not framed this discussion in dispensational terminology for the emphasis has been on the plight of Israel and not the church, per se, as the near-time of the exemplified antichrist approaches. |
| Believer's Study Bible Notes - Matt. 24:15 chart. |
| "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come." (Rev. 4:8). This is not a season to be caught-up in "Jesus Seminar" type apostasy or the "Rethink Christianity" idle confab (Schuller, et al.), but rather a time to understand God's outworking of His endtime Plan (Eph. 1:10) for Israel, the Church and the unbelieving world. If you are not involved in a purposed ministry to serve The Lord's endtime Plan, then ask the Holy Spirit to include you in one He is already blessing. Spare no cost and have no excuse in fulfilling His calling. Just look at what Israel is suffering today, and imagine what will be required of it tomorrow (fig.). |
| Jon D. Hannum, Ph.D. |
| (1) Cor. 3:14 - "But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant |
| is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away." |
| (2) Rom. 11:25-26 - "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you |
| should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;" |
| (3) NEWS FROM ISRAEL, (Midnight Call Ministries, SC) - December 1977, pages 14-17, entitled Jewish |
| Viewpoints [Original source: Jews for Jesus]. |
| (4) Full text review - http://www.aamen.org/Home08a.html |
| (5) Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_principles_of_faith |
| (6) Pied Piper - http://www.aamen.org/PiedPiperWeb-007.ht |
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| nearness of God. Laws are relative. observations clash with society, drop them. |
| The unrighteous will suffer, disagreement Souls merge into one great impersonal exists over their ultimate destiny. Life force. |
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| Today in America, we are blessed without measure, albeit: current economic tremors, political arena grandstanding, along with several denominations seriously wavering on seminal doctrinal absolutes. God still has a masterful purpose to be fulfilled in, and through, America before Daniel's Seventieth Week formally commences. America will receive God's verdict in the near not-to-distant days to come, as will Israel receive its during the Tribulation Period. Much of the unbelieving world is already under God's hand of judgment. Resolve today, to be a dynamic part of God's fulfillment for America, and not a casuality of the process nor a spoil to the enemy. Amen |